462 Prof. E. B. Poulton on the Mimetic N. American 



THE PAPILIONINE MODELS OF LIMENITIS 

 ASTYANAX. 



Before considering the evolution of astyanax from arthe- 

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

 case are Papilionine and not Danaine. 



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

 ii, Stuttgart, 1896, English translation) discovered the 

 wide extent of mimicry within the Fapilioninm, showing 

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

 23hagiLS tended to supply models for his two other sections 

 of the PapilionincV, — Papilio (of which mccchaon, L., may be 

 taken as a type) and Cosmodesm'xs (of which i^odalirius, L., 

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

 both areas inhabited hy Pharmacophagus — the New World, 

 and, in the Old, the Australian and Oriental Regions, and 

 the parts of the Palsearctic adjoining the latter. Outside 

 these areas Pharmacopliagus is only represented by the 

 single species anterior, Drury, of Madagascar. Rothschild 

 and Jordan in their recent exhaustive and admirable 

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

 1906, p. 411-752) entirely confirm Haase's triple division 

 of the PainlioniniB and show the numerous mistakes that 

 have been made by systematists in inferring relationship 

 from the superficial resemblances due to mimicry. 



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 oi astyanax. As 

 in other examples, Haase regarded the distasteful Central 

 and North American " Aristolocliia Swallowtail " (to use 

 Rothschild and Jordan's term), Pharmacophagus pliilenor, 

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

 of his section " Papilio " as well as the Nymph alines, Limi- 

 nitis astyanax and the female of Argynnis {Serjmo'psyche) 

 diana, Or.* 



But the resemblance of these two Nymphalines to the 

 primary model piliilenor is so poor that the suggestion is 



* The mimetic resemblance of the dark southern $ form of 

 Papilio (jlauais {turnus) to P. philenor is also mentioned by A. R. 

 Wallace ("Darwinism," London, 1889, p. 248) and Weismann 

 ("Tlie Evolution Theory," 1904, English translation, i, pp. 110, 111). 

 Wallace also (I.e.) speaks of the likeness of Limenitis Ursula {as- 

 tyanax) to philenor. 



