458 Lieuk-Col. N. Manders on the Study of Mimicry hy 



the same process would in the course of time produce a 

 butterfly quite unlike the type from which it arose. This 

 may be s<» in the case of these two butterflies, but the 

 evidence here produced rather supports the conclusion that 

 the changes in them have been caused bv the gradual 

 accumulation of small variations ; this being so there 

 would seem to be no necessity for bringing in the compli- 

 cated theory of mimicry to account for the resemblance 

 between these two species of butterfly. 



I have recently published a paper * on Batesian and 

 Miillerian Mimicry, in which I examined the subject from 

 the point of view of my own personal knowledge of certain 

 tropical countries. I can only say here, and as briefly as 

 possible, that I was unable to throw anything but a nega- 

 tive light on the premises on which those theories are 

 based, and that some of the conclusions I arrived at were, 

 that though butterflies are more generally eaten by birds 

 than was generally believed, yet no discrimination was 

 shown in their capture; that the presumed unpalatable 

 Danaines were as readily eaten as other species of butterfly, 

 and that the few species of birds I could experiment on 

 in a wild state eat Danais chrysippus as readily as Hypo- 



li ill tins iiiis/ppi/S. 



The circumstance that in life the $ misippus frequently 

 consorts with chrysippus, and may thus lead one pre- 

 disposed to believe in mimicry that he had before him a 

 Miillerian combination, is explained by the fact that the 

 food-plants of both butterflies grow together in the same 

 sandy soil. Should any observer watch them in such 

 situations, as I have done for hours at a time during the 

 last three years, he will find that they are practically 

 unmolested by birds, young or adult. 



I conclude that dorippus and inaria are the older forms 

 from which have descended chrysippus and diocippus re- 

 spectively. Both survive to the present day, practically 

 all over the wide distribution of the species, because like 

 their descendants they are for the time being almost 

 exempt from the struggle for existence. If it were possible 

 to dissect a pupa in the same way as we can the embryo 

 of a mammal, we should find traces of these intermediates 

 and regard them as the remains of a stage beyond which 

 the species has now progressed. 



* Proc Zool. Sue. Lond., May lit 11. 



