1000 



will always be preserved and ameliorated by the influence of natural 

 selection, so that it will give rise to those highly finished cases of 

 mimicry and protective resemblance which so often raise our aston- 

 ishment and admiration. 



One of the reasons that havo made it seem desirable to repeat 

 once more these opinions howevei- often proclaimed before, is tlie 

 fact that DE Meyere in his recent paper "Zur Evolution der Zeich- 

 nung bei den Holometabolen Insekten", wiien arguing on page 59 

 against Botke's views about the wing-pattern of Cossids, declares 

 that he can only see in their design "eine hochgradige Entwicklung 

 einer sympatischen borkenahnlichen Farbung", while on page 48 of 

 his preceding article "Zur Zeichnung des Insekten-, im besonderen 

 des Dipteren- und Lepidopterentliigels", he derixes this design "aus 

 einer Zeuzera-pii-ina-ahnliclien Fleckenzeichnung". To this he adds: 

 "Dieser Weg scheint mir besser verstandlicli als der umgekehrte". 

 And somewhat further on he says about the transverse markings on 

 the under side of several Vanessidae: "diese scheinen mir mit dem 

 primaren Zeichnungsmuster überhaupt nichts zu tun zu haben, 

 sondern es sind eher spat erworbene Elemente der sympathischen 

 Farbung". 



The point in these considerations of de iMeyere which I want to 

 discuss, is not his opposition against Botke's views about the con- 

 nection between spots, stripes and nets, to which 1 cannot pay full 

 adhesion either, but his assertion, that by considering a wing-design 

 as a "sympathetic pattern" an argument is raised for the explana- 

 tion of the origin and the disco\ery of the age of this pattern. 

 Patterns of all kinds, the most original as well as the most strongly 

 modified, may produce a mimicking effect, and thereby prove useful 

 for protective purposes. 



E.g. the wing-design of populi has quite as much protective value 

 as that of ocellata, though only in the sense of resemblance to a 

 weathered poplar-leaf, and yet it is much moie primitive than the 

 latter. Moreover the same motives and elements of design, which in 

 one species of animal are the source of highly imitative mimicry, 

 may also be found in other species, near akin as well as far removed 

 in a generic sense, but here, by showing a somewhat different form 

 or by occurring in another part of the body, only cause a feeble 

 sympathetic resemblance or no mimicking effect at all. Of this so 

 called false mimicry Eimer has cited several instances. 



Numerous thin, irregular transverse stripes between the veins, in 

 the sense of Botke's "traits effiloches", are found except in Vanessidae 

 in many othei' liepidoptera of diverse families: also in Sphiugides, 



