Papilio dardanus (merope) and Acrxa johnstoni, 289 
the most primitive of the mimetic female forms of 
dardanus, and I have been deeply interested to find well- 
marked rudimentary “tails” on two specimens from the 
west coast. These examples of the sub-species merope § f. 
hippocoon exist in the National Collection, the “ tails” being 
pronounced in one (Plate XIX, Fig. 2), distinct in the 
other (Fig. 3). By kind permission of the authorities I am 
able to submit the reproductions, referred to above, of Mr. 
Alfred Robinson’s beautiful photograph, made in the 
Oxford University Museum. 
The sporadic occurrence of this ancestral feature in 
association with precisely that form which still retains the 
most primitive pattern is a difficulty to be surmounted by 
those who have been inclined to minimize or even to deny the 
occasional cropping-up by reversion of long-lost characters. 
The name hippocoonoides has been given by Haase to 
this form in the eastern and southern  sub-species 
tibullus and cenea. This seems to me a most unnecessarily 
complex and inconvenient procedure. The tvophonius of 
the western sub-species mev'ope is at least as different from 
that of the southern cenea as are the two forms of hippocoon 
from the same areas. It is pretty certain indeed that each 
female form of every sub-species has certain peculiarities 
and is not exactly like the same form of any other sub- 
species. But this is quite sufficiently indicated by 
prefixing to the female form name the sub-specific name. 
Papilio dardanus sub-species merope ° f. hippocoon of the 
west coast is naturally different from P. dardanus sub- 
species cenca 9 f. hippocoon from Natal, and it is quite 
unnecessary to express this by turning the last name into 
hippocoonoides. ‘To do so without making corresponding 
changes in the other forms is inconsistent ; to be con- 
sistent in this respect is immensely to increase and to 
increase uselessly an already tremendous terminology. 
The hippocoon forms are everywhere mimics of the 
abundant and conspicuous Danaines, Aimauris niavius of 
the west and its sub-species dominicanus of the east coast 
and the south. They also exhibit a strong secondary 
mimetic approach to their Nymphaline co-mimics Luralia 
anthedon of the west and FL. wahlbergi of the east and south 
(Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond., 1902, p. 486). The hippocoon 
form is probably dominant in all the sub-species of 
dardanus except cenea and perhaps polytrophus; and it is 
present in fair proportion in both these. 
