Mimetic Patterns to the Original Form. 71 



on the other hand, points out that in the Pierine group 

 before us the habits of the two sexes are different ; that 

 whereas the females haunt the forest glades in company 

 with the Heliconii, the males congregate and fly in the 

 open with other species of white butterflies, among whom 

 a reddish or brownish insect would be especially con- 

 spicuous, and would be very liable to experimental 

 tasting.* This fact would seem to supply an active check 

 on the development of the pattern in the male, but it 

 still leaves undetermined the meaning of so much of 

 the Heliconine colouring as does exist, and of this 

 JVJr. Wallace has offered no explanation. 



I am myself inclined to think that however much it 

 may be to the advantage of these male forms to be taken 

 under some circumstances for white butterflies of the 

 ordinary kind, yet there must be times and occasions — 

 probably while the insect is at rest and settled — when 

 the partial mimicry of the underside comes into play, and 

 tends to afford protection. An instance in support of 

 this view exists in Hesperocharis hirlanda (Fig. 12). 

 This insect, like the males of those that have just been 

 considered, is on the upper surface an ordinary white 

 butterfly of the usual kind ; the lower surface, however, 

 presents an incipient mimetic pattern of a like degree of 

 development with those of Mxjlothris . lorena $ and 

 M. iiyrrha 6 . This can be no feeble reflection of a 

 mimetic pattern complete in the female, for the sexes of 

 H. hirlanda hardly differ; moreover H. hirlanda, with 

 one or two other forms probably not specifically distinct 

 from it, is the only species of its genus which shows any 

 approach towards a mimetic coloration. The mimicry, 

 slight as it is, must therefore, it would seem, be of somf> 

 service, as otherwise it would in this case be meaning- 

 less ; and if this be so with H. hirlanda, it is reasonable 

 to suppose that whatever amount of protection such an 

 approach to the Heliconiiie pattern confers, is also shared 

 by the males of Mylothris. 



A further point of interest that arises in connection 

 with H. hirlanda is this — that a mimetic effect which 

 generally resembles that of M. pyrrha $ , is here reached 

 by different means. Ilesperocharis, like Mylothris, starts 

 no doubt from a regular Pierine form, such as that 



* " Tropical Nature," 1878, p. 205. 



