174 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



P. diphUus and P. hector, and in the Nicobars the female of the 



variety Nicobarus mimics the Nicobar variety of P. dlphilus, called 



P. camorta. Then you will see P. janaka is mimicked by a moth 



called Epicopeia polidora, of the family Chalcosidas, and P.aidoneus 



is mimicked by another moth of the same genus called Epicopeia 



polinora. If we examine into the moths we find numerous cases of 



mimicry, commencing with the Zyga3nida3, which mimic various 



kinds of hornets, wasps, and flies, but time does not admit of my 



going into these. There is another form of so-called mimicry, 



which is not mimicry at all. In the family Euplceinas there are 



many series of species which in their markings much resemble each 



other, but as they are all distasteful to birds, lizards, &c-, there can 



be, in so far as we know, no reason why they should mimic each 



other; but, as has been already shown to you, many of them are 



very closely mimicked by various other kinds of butterflies, some 



of which belong to families widely separated from each other and 



by many moths. All the Indian species of Euplceinas, except one, 



E. Andamaneusis , are coloured black, and it is undoubtedly a fact 



that many of them, though differing so much in the shape of their 



wings and in their sexual marks as to have caused their separation 



into different sub-genera, are so nearly like each other in their 



markings as to be hardly distinguishable except to the experienced 



lepidopterist. These similarly marked species, in so far as I can 



understand it, must have had the same common ancestor, and for 



some reason unknown to us, though their markings have remained 



similai', the shape of their wings and the sexual brands on their 



wings, have become altered in the course of time, to adapt them to 



their conditions of life in the great struggle for existence. It is also 



very curious to note how evenly these changes seem to have 



occurred in widely separated places, such, for instance, as in 



Bombay and Ceylon, where we have the common form, E. core, 



a black insect with largish white sub-marginal and marginal spots; 



it has the hinder margin of the fore wings nearly straight, and one 



small sexual brand on the fore wings of the male. We also get in 



Bombay E. Kollari, so like it in its markings as to make it seem at 



the first glance to be the same insect, but if yoa examine it carefully 



you will see that it is quite different in the shape and size of the 



wings in both sexes, and the hinder margin of the fore wing is 



deeply curved outwards, and the sexual brand of the fore wing 



is also quite different. Now in Ceylon we have a form of E. core 



