134 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall on Diaposcmatism, villi reference 



put onfiiiKoh/'s in the same category, and utterly ignore 

 that remarkable divergence in behaviour which of itself 

 bears eloquent testimony to a profound difference between 

 these two species in relation to their insectivorous foes ? 



The Pierine genus Bclcnois has also been credited with 

 unpleasnnt qualities, and these are supposed to be so 

 marked that, as recently suggested, B. severina has been 

 mimicked by several species of other genera. There is 

 nothing in the flight of this species to lend colour to such 

 a view, and it has apparently been overlooked that in my 

 experiments (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1902, passim) this insect 

 and the closely allied B. mesentina were eaten by baboons 

 with evident relish. They were also eaten without any 

 signs of distaste by a mongoose, a kestrel and mantises ; 

 while Colonel Yerbury observed B. mesentina to be eaten 

 in large numbers by spiders, and its larvae were eagerly 

 devoured by my baboon. The assumption of a pronounced 

 degree of distastefulness in this case does not seem to be 

 warranted, unless supported by experiments which shall 

 refute the results obtained by myself. 



The suggestion of inedibility in the genus Precis is still 

 more instructive, and may therefore be treated more in 

 detail. 



The suggested distastefulTiess of the Nymph \alinc genus 

 Precis. 



In Trans. Ent. Soc. 1902 (pp. 424-430) Professor 

 Poulton very strongly urged the probable unpalatability 

 of the genus Precis, basing his views upon the apparent 

 conspicuousness of the under-side colouring in the wet 

 phases of three species. For he says : "It has here been 

 shown that there are important [warning] elements in the 

 under-side coloration of the wet phases of Precis ses* wnu s 

 and P. antilope which cannot be explained as mimicry, 

 Batesian or Mullerian, while the entire appearance of 

 the under surface of P. arcliesia f. pelasgis can only be 

 interpreted as a warning character " (I. c. p. 438). This 

 conception is further supplemented by the "inevitable 

 conclusion " that the conspicuousness of the wet phase 

 has been modified out of the older cryptic appearance of 

 the dry (/.e. pp. 430, 431) ; and the tentative suggestion 

 that the former phase may be more unpalatable than the 

 latter (p. 441). 



