838 Colonel C. Swinlioe on 



in the structural characters in different localities to adapt the 

 creatures to their changes in their surroundings, the general 

 pattern has been maintained, while the changes in structure in 

 some instances have been so great as to form new subgenera in 

 the systematic lists. For example, I show in this exhibit six 

 butterflies of Danais of one pattern from various parts of India, 

 all of different subgenera. Although of one similar pattern, 

 they vary much in shape, and more particularly in the sexual 

 characters of the males. Tiiimala (India) has a large scent- 

 pouch or sac between the median and submedian veins ; Radena 

 exprompta (Ceylon) has none; Farantica fujrea (S. India) has the 

 scent producing organs on both median and submedian veins ; 

 and Bahora pliilo)iiela (West Java) and Asthysa melanoleuca 

 (S. Andamans) have the same; but in Asthysa the scent-pouch 

 on the submedian vein is rudimentary, and they all differ more 

 or less in shape and form. Cadiuja larissa (Java) has the scent- 

 pouches on the submedian aud internal veins. In another 

 example are eight FAiplocus of one pattern, but of eight different 

 subgenera, from different parts of India and the Malay Peninsula, 

 which also, though of very similar pattern, vary much in struc- 

 tural and sexual characters. These insects are so wonderfully 

 alike in pattern, it was not until so recently as 1883, when Mr. 

 F. Moore wrote his great Monograph on the Linninana and 

 Kuploewa in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' ex- 

 plaining their structural differences, that their subgeneric dis- 

 tinctions have been properly understood. 



There are many distasteful butterflies mimicked by others for 

 protection, but the Jimcussce are the commonest in the Old 

 World ; and after I had the good fortune to listen to Mr. 

 Poulton's great lecture on Mimicry at the last British Association 

 Meeting at Leeds, it struck me it would be a good thing to follow 

 any one mimetic species all over the different countries inhabited 

 by it, and see the result. Now in the genus Hypolimnas or 

 Diadema, though according to systematists there are many 

 species, there are from a biological point of view practically only 

 two distinct species, H, mysippns and H. holina, and I therefore 

 determined to follow them, and the result I must say has 

 astonished me. 



First we will deal with H. mysippus. The female is somewhat 

 similar to the female of H. holina, but it is a smaller insect ; the 

 white spots on the wings above are larger, rounder, and without 

 any blue ; and the under side has a reddish hue, not present in 

 H. bolina, and on the wing it is a far more active insect. The 

 male, so far as we know, is able to protect itself, and is never 

 mimetic ; but if you cripple one and let it go, it soon falls a prey 

 to the first insect, bird, or reptile that sees it. Its female is 

 invariably mimetic, being a slow flier, and a conspicuous object ; 



