Species of the Genus Limcnitis, 476 



other devices we have recounted ; for certainly it is itself 

 mimicked by one sex of a butterfly of another very dis' 

 tinct group, viz. Senmopsyche diana." 



The female of A. diana is only mimetic of astyanax on 

 the upper surface. There is, however, far less sheen about 

 the blue tint of diana, and in this respect it approaches 

 the Papilio mimics of 2)/a/c?ior more closely than it does 

 astyanax, while the Argynnis is itself further removed 

 from the primary model than any of the other mimics. 

 Scudder speaks of the uniformity between the sexes of the 

 group to which dyiana belongs ; but Dr. F. A. Dixey has 

 shown (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1890, pp. 89-129) that 

 the females of Argynnis often tend to be dark, and he 

 points to A. ])aphia as a well-known example of a species 

 with a dark female form, — valezina. He gives strong 

 reasons for the belief that such dark forms are ancestral, 

 and that among them the female of diana is esjDecially 

 primitive. 



It is a probable hypothesis that the recent evolution 

 of L. astyanax provided this ancestral form with a model 

 which it could approach by small and easy steps of varia- 

 tion. In this way it is possible to explain the appearance 

 of the only character which, in 13r. Dixey's opinion, " is 

 really peculiar to A. diana among its relatives .... 

 [viz.] the large expanse of blue ground colour ..." which 

 Dr. Dixey admits to be "like the corre.<=!ponding feature in 

 B. astyanax and L. philenor " (1. c, p. lOG, footnote). 



LIMENITIS (ADELPHA) CALIFORNIOA, THE 

 NYMPHALINE MODEL OF LIMENITIS 

 LORQUINI. 



The dominant genus Adclplia is the close ally and tropical 

 American representative of the Holarctic and Oriental 

 Limenitis (s. 1.). Chlorippe, as employed by God man and 

 Salvin, is similarly the Neotropical representative and near 

 ally of Apatura. The females of certain Palaearctic Apatu- 

 ras such as our own A. iris, L., are probably rough mimics 

 upon the upper surface of the black white-marked species 

 of Limenitis, such as L. sihylla, L. I have found in the 

 Sierra Guadarrama, Spain, Apatura iris, L., flying with 

 L. Camilla, Wien. Verz., and closely resembling it upon the 

 wing. The males of these species with their beautiful 



