( 427 ) 



XX. Heredity in six families of Papilio dardaoius, Brown, 

 Subspecies cenea, Stoll, bred at Durban, by Mr. G. F. 

 Leigh, F.E.S. By Edward B. Poulton, D.Sc., M.A., 

 LL.D. (Princeton), F.R.S., etc., Hope Professor of 

 Zoology in the University of Oxford, Fellow of Jesus 

 College, Oxford. 



Plates XXIII and XXIV. 



[Read June 3rd, 1908.] 



Between September 1902 and Marclr 1905 Mr. G. F. 

 Leigh has bred families twice from each of the three 

 mimetic female forms of the south-eastern subspecies of 

 Papilio dardanus, Brown. The whole of the resulting 

 material, with the exception of a portion of the first family, 

 exists in the Hope Department, and it is of sufficient 

 magnitude to justify a general account and to support 

 certain important conclusions. 



The first section of this paper will deal with the heredi- 

 tary relationship of the several female forms. Evidence 

 will be produced in favour of the conclusion that their 

 proportion, at any rate in certain localities, is due in part 

 to the proportion and in part to the relative conspicuous- 

 ness of the Danaine models. 



The second section will deal with the hereditary relation- 

 ship in certain elements of the mimetic pattern. The 

 attempt will be made to show the manner in which the 

 details of the mimetic forms have been brought to resemble 

 those of their models. 



The unfortunate clerical errors in Professor Weismann's 

 recent use of this species as an example of mimicry (" The 

 Evolution Theory," English transl., Loud., 1904, vol. i. Pi. 

 I) render it very desirable that the female forms should 

 be again represented in coloured figures, together with 

 their models. A full correction of the mistakes here re- 

 ferred to will be found in the writer's " Essays on Evolu- 

 tion," Oxford, 1908, pp. 375, 376, from which the follow- 

 ing passage is quoted :—:" Professor Weismann's prolific 

 labours and great discoveries give an authority and intiu- 

 ence to these unlucky copyist's errors, and therefore it is of 

 the utmost importance to set them right in detail " (p. 

 375). 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1908.— PART III. (DEC.) 



