244 THEORIES OF MIMICRY 



a hive-bee, that it feeds upon pollen and hone)-. This 

 fact viay have some significance in relation to the effects 

 of food upon form and coloration.' ' Hut the larva of 

 Eristalis stores up nutriment, out of which the hnal form 

 is built, by ferdinL- on putrefvini: animal matter, a food 

 as different as possible froiu that provided for the larval 

 bee. The peculiar c(Mulitions under which the larvae of 

 stinging 1 Iymenoi)tera obtain their food invariabl)- con- 

 trast strongly with the larval condition of their numerous 

 mimics. We hnd in this Section, as in the others, that 

 the suggested interpretation of these resemblances as the 

 common effect of a common cause or set of causes breaks 

 down the moment it is anal)'sed. The view is a super- 

 ficial one. and cannot be sustained when the slightest 

 attempt is made to understand the nature of the pheno- 

 mena it professes to ex[jlain. 



9. Mimetic Kcscnid/ancc and Conmioii M'arniti*:; Colours 

 more iharactcri^tic of the Feviale than the Mate Sex. 



These resemblances arc far commoner in females than 

 males, and when the two sexes differ in the closeness with 

 which a likeness to some other form is brought about, it 

 is the female which always attains the greater perfection. 

 Examples of mimetic females with non-mimetic males 

 are extremely abundant, being in fact a high proportion 

 of all the cases which occur; examples of the converse 

 relationship are very nearl\- unknown. These general 

 statements hold widi Common Warninof Colours as well 

 as widi truly mimetic species ; the)- are equally true in 

 all the warmer ])arts of the world where examples of 

 Miiuicr) are well known and abundant. 



In the numberless cases in which a non-mimetic male 

 is accompanied by a mimetic female, the male bears 

 the ancestral appearance, so that when we pass to a land 

 where both sexes of the rejjresentative s[)ecies are non- 

 mimetic. t)oth resemble the non-mimetic male of the former 

 species. In a long series of related species, moreover, 

 the males are found to be nearly alike, while the females 



' Animal Coloraiion, London, 1892, p. 232, n. 



