1 



Ent. Soc, 1918, p. xliv; see also Proc, 1919, p. xi). It is« 

 improbable that all the naturalists mentioned in the j)ages 

 referred to were mistaken in the conclusion they arrived at 

 independently. Furthermore, a lizard has been seen to be 

 obviously attracted by the eye-spot near the apex of the 

 fore-wing under surface of Coenonympha pampkilus L. 

 (" Colours of Animals," London, 1890, pp. 206, 207; see also 

 Trans. Ent. Soc, 1902, pp. 440, 441.) 



Dr. Van Someren was inclined to reject the theory of the 

 " false head " in favour of one which assumes simple con- 

 spicuousness and attractiveness in the colours and structures 

 at the anal angle of the hind- wing under surface. This 

 latter explanation has already been suggested for numerous 

 Lycaenidae with tails " too large and conspicuous to resemble 

 antennae " — species in which " the aj^pearance of a ' false 

 head ' seems to have been to a large extent lost in the pro- 

 motion of excessive conspicuousness " (Proc. 1918, p. xlviii). 



In other Lycaenidae, however, the fine hair-like tails made 

 to pass and repass each other by the eccentric movements, 

 the associated eye-spots, and the outwardly bent lobe of 

 many species, giving, as Dr. Mortensen wrote, " the most 

 wonderful likeness to a real broad head," have, without doubt, 

 been correctly interpreted as a head-like appearance, render- 

 ing a non-vital part especially attractive to vertebrate 

 enemies. The difference between this and Van Someren's 

 view is not great, for he also considers this part of the wing 

 to be an area " of- most attractability," although not head- 

 like. The diverge&ce is perhaps to be explained by the fact 

 that he observed in the field and figured, in the plate facing 

 p. 18 of hiS' paper, many species with the " excessive con- 

 spicuousness " referred to above. 



The existence of two or more eye-spots and tails in so many 

 species, also well illustrated in Van Someren's plate, has for 

 long been a puzzle, now for the first time explained by the 

 author's observation that lizards, invariably approaching 

 from behind, attacked sometimes from above, seizing the 

 upper eye-spot and tail, sometimes from below, seizing the 

 lower, sometimes directly from behind, removing part of both 

 eye-spots. Attacks from all three directions were con- 



