4G2 Prof. E. B. Poulton on the Mimetic N. American 



THE PAPILTONINE MODELS OF LIMENITIS 

 AST VAN AX. 



Before considering the evolution of adyanax from artlie- 

 mis it is expedient to deal with the models, which in this 

 case arc Papilionine and not Danaine. 



The late Erich Haase (" Researches on Mimicry," part 

 ii, Stuttgart, 189G, English translation) discovered the 

 wide extent of mimicry within the Fairilionint'e, showing 

 that the section to which he gave the name of Pharmaco- 

 phagus tended to supply models for his two other sections 

 of the Pcqnlionina?, — P^jnlio (of which machaon, L., may be 

 taken as a type) and Cosmodcsmns (of which j^odalirins, L., 

 may be taken as a type). He showed that this is true of 

 both areas inhabited by Pharmacophar/us — the New World, 

 and, in the Old, tlie AustraHan and Oriental Regions, and 

 tlie parts of the PaUcarctic adjoining the latter. Outside 

 these areas Fharmacoi^hag^is is only represented by the 

 single species antenor, Drury, of Madagascar, Rothschild 

 and Jordan in their recent exhaustive and admirable 

 monograph on the American Papilios (Nov. Zool., xiii, 

 190G, p. 411-752) entirely confirm Haase's triple division 

 of the Painlionina} and show the numerous mistakes that 

 have been made by systematists in inferring relationship 

 from the superficial resemblances due to mimiciy. 



Haase failed, however, to appreciate the true nature of 

 some of these mimetic associations because of his imperfect 

 recognition of the scope of the Miillerian principle. He 

 failed to do so in the case of the models of asfi/anax. As 

 in other examples, Haase regarded the distasteful Central 

 and North American " Aristolochia Swallowtail " (to use 

 Rothschild and Jordan's term), Phannaeophagys phi/cnoo', 

 L., as the central model round Avhich were clustered species 

 of his section " Pipilio " as well as the Nymphalines, Limi- 

 nitis astyanax and the female of Arggnnis {Semnopsychc) 

 diana, Or.* 



But the resemblance of these two Nymphalines to the 

 primary model iiJdlenor is so poor that the suggestion is 



* Tlie mimetic resemblance of tlie dark southern $ form of 

 Papilio fjlaucns (turmi.-i) to P. philenur is also mentioned by A. R. 

 Wallace ("Darwinism," Londc^i, 1889, p. 248) and Weismanu 

 ("The Evolution Theory," 1904, Enj,'lish translation, i, pp. 110, 111). 

 Wallace also (I.e.) speaks of the likeness of Lhnenitis nrsula {as- 

 tyanax) to philenor. 



