MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 519 



be distinguishable botli from that Aer(B(i aud from A. Zetes. I have been doubtful 

 whether the Papllio better mimicked Zetcs or Egiita, Ijut, on close comparison, believe 

 the latter to be the special object of imitation, in consequence of the red discal band in 

 the fore wings of Ridleyamis evidently copying the corresponding rufous space presented 

 by JEgina — though the red spots in the border of the hind wings resemble those of Zete-s, 

 and of ^^. Perenna, Doubl., a native of Ashauti*. The female P. Pkllci/auKs resembles 

 the female Eylna, not only in its coloration being much duller than that of the male, 

 but (as in the case of JPanopea Boisdiwalii aud Acrcea Zetes) in the blunter, more 

 rounded outline of the fore wings f. 



The palpi of the Piqyilio are yellow, like those of the Aci'tea ; and the hinder portion 

 of the abdomen of the male is almost wholly yellowish beneath, and marked laterally 

 with spots of the same colour, increasing in size to the extremity, so as to approximate 

 to the colouring of the same part in the male Egina, while the paler and more distinct 

 spots on the distended abdomen of the female present a nearer resemblance to the mark- 

 ings of the female Egina. 



I have now passed under review the most remarkable instances, eleven in number, of 

 mimetic analogies known to occur among the butterflies of Africa^. It has been sho\^^l, 

 (1°) that the mimicking luitterflies invariably occur in districts inhabited by the species 

 mimicked, and in six cases (of southern species or varieties) are found in the very same 

 localities ; (2°) that, in eight cases, the mimickers are known to be very much scarcer 

 than the species which they copy ; (3°) that, in five cases, where the Danais or Acrcea 

 presents local forms, or merely slight varieties, even these are imitated by individuals of 

 the mimicking species ; (4°) that, in three cases, where the sexes of the insect mimicked 

 differ remarkably from each other, the sexes of the mimicker present corresponding dif- 

 ferences ; and (5°) that, in four cases observed by me in nature, it was next to impossible 

 to distinguish the living mimicker from the species which it imitated. In the instance 

 of Danais Echeria, I have demonstrated how, in addition to a Dladema, no less than 

 three species of PapiUo copy that butterfly, the two closer mimickers in Papllio being 

 females of wholly dissimilar males, and belonging, in fact, to different sections of the 

 genus ! In the very remarkable case of the polymorphic Papllio Merope, it has been 

 my endeavour to point out how three of the four forms of female in Africa are protected 



* A. Pemimi also has the rufous space near the posterior angle of the fore wings, but it is a considerahly smaller 

 insect than either Egina or the PapUlo, and has the fore wings remarkably narrow and elongated. 



t In the dull-fulvous suffusion of the hind \vings, the $ Ridleijanm more resembles some female examples of 

 A. Zetes. 



X The vastncss of the African regions that have never been entomologically explored renders it almost certain 

 that many other equally strildng eases of mimiciy remain to be discovered. No part of Equatorial or even Ti'opical 

 Africa has yet been searched by a competent lepidojiterist — the collections transmitted to Ivirope from the western 

 coast and other parts having been formed by persons who collected at random, with little, if any, care to record special 

 localities or stations. Some idea of the Ehopalocerous riches of the region within a few degrees of the equator m\\\ 

 be formed from an inspection of the third volume of Mr. Hewitson's ■' Exotic Butterflies,' in which plate after plate is 

 filled with figures of new species from Old Calabar, the fi-uit of the laliours of a single collector, who, but for a short 

 time and in a limited area, entomologized in that district. 



