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XXIV. On some of the principal Mimetic {MilUerian) Com- 

 hinatio7is of Tropiical American Butterfiies. By J. 

 C. MoULTON, F.E.S., of Magdalen College, Oxford. 



[Read June 3, 1908.] 



Plates XXX— XXXIV. 



In the year 1896 Mr. W. F. H. Blandford, with the help 

 of the late Mr. Osbert Salvin, F.R.S., selected a series of 

 mimetic combinations of Tropical American butterflies from 

 the Godman-Salvin collection. These he exhibited in the 

 same year at the Royal Society and at the Entomological 

 Society of London (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1896, p. xxxviii). 

 They were also shown and described by him in the follow- 

 ing year, during the discussion which followed Dr. F. A. 

 Dixey's paper on " Mimetic Attraction " (Proc. 1897, pp. 

 xx-xxxii and xxxiv-xlvii ; Trans. 1897, pp. 317-331). 

 The opinion was strongly expressed at the time that it 

 would be of great advantage if the associations could be 

 kept intact, or at least some permanent recoi'd of them 

 preserved. As regards the great majority of specimens 

 exhibited by Mr. Blandford this was found to be imprac- 

 ticable ; but Professor Poulton, F.R.S., at once began to 

 collect material for similar groups — from the Hope Collec- 

 tion, from the great series of duplicates presented to the 

 Hope Department by Dr. F. Ducane Godman and Mr. 

 O. Salvin, and from other sources. By 1901 so much 

 progress had been made that he applied to Dr. Godman 

 for his kind help in lending the comparatively few rare 

 species which did not exist in the Hope Department. 

 These were added to the Oxford material, and beautiful 

 photographs of four South American combinations (Plates 

 XXX-XXXIII) were taken by Mr. Alfred Robinson of the 

 Oxford University Museum. In order to give some con- 

 ception of the analogy between Miillerian resemblances in 

 the Old World and the New, a group of Oriental Enplcein^ 

 with one convergent Danaine was photographed at the 

 same time (Plate XXX IV). The South American asso- 

 ciations, of which a permanent record was thus made, are 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1908. — PART IV. (jAN. 1909) 



