( ikxx® |} 
tions.” In 1894 he read before the Society his elaborate 
paper ‘‘On the Phylogeny of the Pierine, as illustrated by 
their Wing-markings and Geographical Distribution,” and 
took occasion to discuss the wide divergence from the 
primitive or typical pattern of the group caused by mimicry 
in such genera as Huterpe, Pereute, Dismorphia, etc. Adopt- 
ing the Millerian interpretation as expanded by Meldola, he 
proceeded to offer the original suggestion that, in the 
acquisition of closer resemblance between two or more 
protected forms, it was not necessary that in every instance 
the process of adaptation should lie solely in the imitation of 
one particular form as model, but that there might very well 
exist mutual convergence of the forms concerned, thus 
accelerating the attainment of the common beneficial resem- 
blance. This ‘‘reciprocal mimicry” the author further 
explained in a paper read in 1896 ‘‘On the Relation of 
‘* Mimetic Patterns to the Original Form”’ (pp. 72-75), by a 
consideration of certain mimetic sets of Heliconii, Pierine, 
and Papilionine which present features and relations of 
pattern and colouring explicable apparently in no other way 
than by the hypothesis in question. This paper also gave a 
lucid demonstration, traced through corresponding series 
of existing forms of both mimetic and non-mimetic Pierine, 
of ‘the successive steps through which a complicated and 
‘“* practically perfect mimetic pattern could be evolved in 
‘‘ simple and easy stages from a form presenting merely the 
‘‘ ordinary aspect of its own genus,’’ and further adduced 
reasons for holding that ‘‘ it is not necessary that the forms 
‘‘ between which mimicry originates should possess consider- 
‘* able initial resemblance.” In his latest memoir, ‘‘ Mimetic 
‘« Attraction,”’ read on 5th May last,* Dr. Dixey expanded a 
suggestion he had previously (1896) made _ respecting 
divergent members of an inedible group to point out—still 
from evidence in the Pierine subfamily to which he has 
devoted so much fruitful study—* how the process of gradual 
‘‘ assimilation starting from one given point may take not 
** one direction only but several divergent paths at the same 
* Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1897, p. 317. 
