Mimetic Attraction. Syeall 
species until it terminates in a Pieris or Mylothris bearing 
an intimate mimetic relation with some insect of entirely 
different affinities. It is further to be observed that, in 
every instance, the species here considered as the model 
towards which these diverging series tend, does not 
present an isolated and independent scheme of coloration, 
but is itself a member of a larger or smaller group of 
forms, in addition to the Pierine mimic, all of which are 
endowed with an aspect similar to itself—in other words, 
that the mimetic associations do not run simply in pairs, 
but in groups. This latter fact has long been recognised ; 
and the existence of such mimetic groups has been 
shown by F. Miiller, Meldola, end Poulton to possess 
a further significance than that originally detected by 
Bates. The elaborate work of Haase* contains an 
attempt to give a systematic account of the chief cases 
of mimetic grouping. But in spite of what has already 
been written by these and other authors, it may be 
doubted whether the importance of the principle of 
inimicry among the factors that have determined the 
facies of the insect fauna in such a region as the neo- 
* “Untersuchungen itber die Mimicry,” Stuttgart, 1893. It may 
here be mentioned that several of the above-named insects have 
been noticed by Haase ; who, however, has not attempted to trace 
in any detail the lines of mimetic assimilation that diverge from the 
common Pierine stock. He speaks, for instance, of Mylothris lorena 
Gand M. malenka 2 , which undoubtedly belong to the nuwmata group, 
as having arisen from such forms as P. demophile 2 , and considers 
that the transition took place through forms resembling P. viardi 
Q. Buta careful examination will I believe show that, as stated 
above, neither P, demophile 2 nor P. viardi 2 is in the direct 
line passing from the unaltered Pieris towards JM. pyrrha and 
Heliconius numata. Both are, in fact, intermediate terms in the 
series leading up to an entirely distinct assemblage, that typified 
by Tithorea pavonii and Heliconius atthis (Haase’s “ Bonplandi 
Tracht”); while P. demophile shows evidence of attraction by the 
protected agna group, and P, viardi by the dominant form Heli- 
conius charitonia. Again, the red streak on the underside of the 
hindwing in the males of M. lorena, etc., is attributed by Haase to 
“inheritance from the female,” but its origin is not traced by him 
to the primitive basal red common to many Pierine genera. (See 
Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1894, pp.283-289 ; zbid., 1896, pp. 72, 73.) 
Pieris leptalina, Bates (P. pisonis, Hew.) is spoken of by Haase as 
representing the first partial assimilation tu certain Jthoméas ; 
rightly, :o far as the main fact is concerned ; but it may also be 
noticed that earlier stages of the same assimilation exist in P. 
kigaha, and, as shown above, in P. pandosia. 
