significance of unng -markings. 105 



A. niphe <? and ? , A. childreni <? and ? , &c., we 

 should recognise the last battle-ground between the 

 rival tints, the old one holding its own longest in the 

 female, and especially clinging to the region of the 

 borders and anal angle of the wings.* 



If this be the true account of the bluish or greenish 

 areas in the wings of such species as A. nvphc, and if 

 this survival of the ancestral ground colour about the 

 borders of the wings be the origin, as seems most 

 probable, of the blue constituent of series IV., so con- 

 stantly present in the Vancssidce, we have in the whole 

 history of this series of markings an interesting case 

 of the revival and fresh employment of an almost obso- 

 lete feature ; just as if an old weapon, rusty from disuse, 

 were polished up anew and once more turned to account, 

 not indeed for its old purposes, but as a piece of orna- 

 ment. The history of the series D, a — 4", we saw to be 

 somewhat similar, inasmuch as they represent mere 

 lighter areas of ground colour, seized upon as it were 

 and turned to more distinctly decorative purposes. In 

 the two cases the most probable lines of origin are seen 

 to converge from the showy and highly specialised 

 Vanessas, through such forms as A. niphe to the archaic 

 and comparatively sombre female Argynnis diana.\ 



* Perhaps even in this diminished form still serving as a pro- 

 tection, by shading the insect off against its surromidings, when 

 sunning itself in the usual manner of Argynnids. 



i Scudder (' Butterflies of the Eastern United States,' 1889, 

 pp. 287, 532, note, 718, 1802, &c.) asserts that the difference be- 

 tween the sexes in SeTntiopsyche [Argynnis) diana is due to mimi- 

 cry; the female A. diana mimicking Basilarchia astyanax 

 {Limenitis Ursula of Doubleday and Westwood). " There can be 

 no doubt," he says, "that 8. diana is the mimicker, since it 

 obtains its resemblance by departing from the ground colour not 

 only of the opposite sex, but that prevailing in both sexes in the 

 whole tribe of Argyunidi to which it belongs." I do not find 

 myself able to concur with Scudder in this opinion, for the following 

 reasons: — (1). The ground colour of A. diana J does not widely 

 differ from that of many other female Argynnids, e.g., A. valesina, 

 A . sagan a, and (for part of the wing) A . injjhc. There is therefore no 

 need to assume mimicry in order to account for it. (2). The 

 habits oiA. diana are not those of an insect protected by mimicry, 

 it being, according to Edwards, " an exceedingly alert and wary 

 insect." (3). The resemblance of the two insects is not close. A. 

 diana is much larger than B. asiyanax, and differs widely from it 

 in shape. (4). On the other hand, there is a close resemblance, as 

 pointed out by Doubleday and Westwood (' Genera of Diurnal 



