11 



April, 1912.] 79 



ON SOME UNINTENTIONAL EVIDENCE 



IN SUPPORT OF THE MIMICRY THEORIES, 



SUPPLIED BY A SMALL COLLECTION OF 



BORNEAN BUTTERFLIES. 



By J. C. MOULTON, F.L.S., F.E.S., 

 Curator of the Sarawak Museum. 



Reprinted from " The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine," 2nd Series, Vol. xxiii. 



A collection of butterflies was recently brought to me for 

 examination by a friend who had caught them all in a fortnight's 

 visit to a Sarawak out-station (Simunjon, December, 1911) ; and as 

 it demonstrates so beautifully some of the chief characteristics of an 

 Eastern butterfly fauna, I have thought that perhaps a few notes may 

 be of some interest. Museum collections give a general idea of the 

 resources of a country in any particular faunistic branch, and entomo- 

 logical literature can tell us something about the habits and rarity 

 (or otherwise) of each species, but a far clearer side-light on the 

 subject is gained by examining a small collection of this sort, formed, 

 I should add, by a non-entomological visitor, who was content to take 

 the easy course of collecting all those individuals which for the most 

 part seemed almost to court capture by their gentle flight and brilliant 

 colouring. An entomologist, recognizing the common species, would 

 probably have passed them by, and devoted his attention to the 

 rarities. This collection, however, was made by a wem-entomologist 

 to whom all Sarawak butterflies were new and desirable, and hence, 

 although there are no rarities which call for remark, the relative 

 mimbers of each species are both instructive and interesting. 



