488 Mr. R. W. C. Shelford's Note on 



markings ; the females, so far as they are known, are 

 Pierine mimics. The males of some species are fairly 

 close mimics of such species of Euthalia (sub-genus 

 Cynitia, Moore) as cocytus, Fab., and Icpidca, Butl., which 

 have the broad band on the hind-wings of a greenish 

 tinge ; Elymnias andersoni, Moore, from the Mergui Archi- 

 pelago, has the maculae on the upper-side of a bluish-green, 

 judging at any rate from Moore's figure (Lepid. Ind., vol. ii, 

 PI. 143, figs. 2 and 2a), and in general appearance the 

 insect approximates to Euthalia andersoni, Moore, from 

 the same locality, a species with a pale-blue band to the 

 hind-wing above. Elymnias hornccnsis, Wall., ^, is not at 

 all like any of the pale-blue banded Cynitias of Borneo, and 

 I do not consider it to be a mimetic form. In the males 

 of Elymnias horneensis and E. csaca there are two or three 

 red spots at the base of the hind-wing below ; perhaps in 

 this sex these spots serve to increase the cryptic character 

 of the under-side of the wing (though it is difficult to see 

 how this can possibly be the case), but it is interesting to 

 note that in the females of these two species these basal 

 red spots play a most important part in increasing the 

 resemblance to a Pierine such as Delias pardcmia, which is 

 similarly provided with red spots on the fore-wing below. 

 The males of Elymnias andersoni, E. leontina, and E. 

 mahesivara are not provided with the basal red spots, but 

 the female of E. maheswara has quite a large basal red 

 area and is a good Pierine mimic ; the females of the 

 other species are not known. It is impossible to state 

 definitely whether the red spots in the male are ancestral 

 characters that have been lost by E. andersoni, E. mahes- 

 wara, etc., or whether they are characters newly acquired 

 by the males of E. esaea and E. horneensis, but since the 

 female maheswara is a much closer Pierine mimic than the 

 females of esaca and horneensis it is presumably a more 

 highly-evolved form ; so that the evidence, poor though it 

 is, points to the conclusions : (i) that the red spots in the 

 male are ancestral characters retained by the less highly- 

 specialised forms, lost in the more specialised forms ; (ii) 

 that in the female these ancestral characters being of the 

 highest importance in producing a Pierine appearance are 

 more developed in the higher forms than in the lower ; or, 

 in other words, in the male sex the basal red spots tend to 

 disappear, in the female sex they tend to increase pari 

 passu with increased specialisation. 



