( 41 ) 



years. The most probable explanation appears to be that, 

 in the condition of the jungle on Damba Island, there is some- 

 thing unfavourable to Planemas, and that, in the absence or 

 relative scarcity of the models, the mimetic resemblance of the 

 Pseudacraeas is no longer rigidly maintained by selection. 

 The pattern of Ps. terra is found among the protean mimetic 

 forms of eurytus, L., on the west coast, and even the colour as 

 well as the pattern in a Nigerian mimic of the male PI. epaea* 

 I suggest that in an aiea where these mimetic patterns are less 

 strongly selected, there is a tendency, checked elsewhere, for 

 them to run into each other, and also to move in the direction 

 of the western eurytus forms, from which there can be little 

 doubt that the mimetic Pseudacraeas of Uganda originally 

 developed. It is to be hoped that Dr. Carpenter may be able 



[xcv 

 to obtain the material, by breeding as well as by capture, by 

 which- this hypothesis will be confirmed or refuted. 



Observations on the Courtship of Planema alcinoe, 

 Feld. — Prof. Poulton exhibited four males and one female 

 of Planema alcinoe, captured Aug. 10th, 1911, in the forest 

 one mile E. of Oni, near Lagos, by Mr. W. A. Lamborn, 

 under the conditions described by him in the next paragraph, 

 dated Aug. 13th. Prof. Poulton said that he was not aware 

 of similar observations having been made upon Lepidoptera, 

 in which group the unsuccessful males have often been seen 

 to disperse as soon as pairing takes place. It is to be noted 

 that in a family of P. alcinoe bred by Mr. Lamborn the males 

 emerged Sept. 8th- 11th, 1911, the females not until Sept. 

 16th-22nd. 



" I found five Planemas in a confused mass on a thin bough. 

 Careful examination revealed that four were males and one a 

 female. A male and female were in coitu, both resting on 

 the upper side of the little bough facing opposite ways ; 

 another male rested underneath, his head in the same direc- 

 tion as that of the female. His claspers gripped her abdomen 

 immediately in front of the claspers of his more successful 

 rival, the penis of No. 2 being extruded and forced to one 



* Figured by Dr. Karl Jordan in the publication of " I. Congr. Internat. 

 d'Ent.," 1910, Vol. II, pi. xxii, fig. 22a. Good examples of pattern but 

 not colour resemblance are shown in his pi. xxiii, tigs. 26a. 27a. 



