Mimetic Relationships in the genus Heliconius. 147 



The second is apparently centred round Mechanitis 

 lysimnia, Fab. ; and includes H. narcaea and H. narcaea 

 polychrous. 



Association III is the Upper Amazon or Ega type, con- 

 taining dark brown forms and including Mechanitis egaensis, 

 Bates, and a form of H. partial intis and seven species of 

 other subfamilies. 



Association IV is described as the Bolivia, Ecuador and 

 Peru type, characterised by orange-tawny markings on a 

 black ground and including Melinaea mothone, Hew., and 

 H. aristiona aristiona also. 



Ilhomiinae 4 

 Salyrinae 2 

 Nymphalinae 3 

 Ileliconinae 2 

 Acraeainae 1 

 Papilioninae 2 

 Hypsidae 2 



M. C. Oberthiir has published an interesting account,* 

 with a wealth of illustration, of the variation of H. vesta 

 (erato) and H. thelxiope (melpomene), in which he shows how 

 the variations of one are exactly copied by the variations 

 of the other throughout their range. He comes to the 

 remarkable conclusion that, whilst the two species can 

 be distinguished in nearly all their localities, they each 

 ultimately produce a form which he calls melpomene, and 

 the melpomene form of vesta is indistinguishable from the 

 melpomene form of thelxiope. Oberthiir's figures of these 

 melpomene forms are equivalent to H. erato callycopsis, f. 

 viculata and H. melpomene melpomene f. atrosecta respec- 

 tively. Oberthiir was, of course, unaware of the character 

 separating the genus into two sections, though his two 

 forms of " melpomene " can also be distinguished by the 

 shape of the red band on the fore-wing. 



It may be interesting to note the geographical distribu- 

 tion of some of the characteristic patterns of the genus, and 

 the appended table (Table II) shows the range of five such 

 patterns. It is based on existing information as to the 

 localities in which the forms named have been taken. 

 Such information is, of course, of a positive nature, whereas 

 the absence of any record of a form from a given Locality 



* Etud. d'Ent, 21, 1902. 



