500 MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



have published (' Rhopalocera AfricsB Austraiis,' pt. ii. p. 335) an interesting note hy 

 Mr. J. H. Bowker on the manner in which Junonia (Euone, one of the Nymphalidce, is 

 systematically hunted down by a small Kaffrarian lizard. This Junonia is a particularly 

 wary, active insect, and must give its pursuers infinitely more trouble to capture than 

 would the slow, inert, grass-loving Acrcem of the same district ; yet the lizards leave the 

 latter unmolested. On more than one occasion, I have seen the larger Dragonflies catch 

 Butterflies, both in England and Natal. Pieridce were the victims in both countries ; but 

 in Natal the ubiquitous AcrcecB were certainly passed by, and the more active insects 

 selected. In the colony in question, several species of Acacia secrete a viscid fluid ; and 

 the spaces on the branches where this freshly exudes from the bark are a great resort of 

 insects of all Orders, which assemble to imbibe the liquid. The larger Mantidce take 

 advantage of these gatherings to secure a plentiful and easy living ; and one of them is 

 usually to he seen among or close to the group of butterflies, beetles, wasps, ants, and 

 flies attracted to the feast. As long as there is anything left to drink, there is no lack 

 of visitors, and the Mantis fattens on numerous victims. The wings rejected by the 

 devourer, who seems to prefer butterflies to other insects, in a short time rather con- 

 spicuously sprinkle the ground or herbage under one of these feeding-places ; and in a 

 few instances, where 1 chanced upon accessible spots, I searched among the disjecta 

 membra for remains of Danais or Acnea, but in vain. It is necessary to observe that I 

 cannot recollect having distinguished Butterflies of either of those genera at such drinking- 

 stations ; l^ut the exudations were often situated at a height that precluded the certain 

 distinction of any but very large insects, and there is apparently no reason why the 

 fluid so universally appreciated should fail to attract those butterflies. 



I think that the facts already placed on record, to the more important of which I have 

 referred, may fairly be urged in support of the position that the Danaidce and Acrceidce 

 are exempted or protected in a very great degree from the attacks of those enemies to 

 which the diurnal Lepidoptera generally, in their adult state, are constantly exposed. 

 There are many instances of Butterflies, of various families, whose great abundance indi- 

 cates that they have, by some means, attained immunity from persecution, or risen 

 superior to adverse circumstances ; but, as grouj)s, the Danaidce and Acrceidce, wherever 

 they occur, are unquestionably preeminent in individuals, if not in species, and must 

 take rank as the most perfectly adapted of all their Order to the existing conditions of 

 life. 



It is not surprising to find that those families of Butterflies which hold the first place 

 in the battle of life display a structure which has led Mr. Bates to assign to them a 

 position, in a "natural system" of classification, at the head of the order Lepidoptera*. 

 The atrophy of the fore legs is a special character of the Bhopalocera as a group, which 

 most widely distinguishes them from the Heterocera and from other Orders of insects ; 

 and this has been tacitly recognized by the universal consent with which entomologists 

 have assigned the lowest place among Butterflies to the HesperiidcB, a family which 

 shows its afiinity to the Moths by the fully developed fore legs, as well as by other cha- 



* See Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxiii., and Journal of Entomology, December 1861, and No. X. 18G4. 



