BUTTERFLIES AND MIMICRY 



heath, and large heath butterflies at rest, to deter- 

 mine if they really mimic or match their environ- 

 ment. I know that many careful naturalists 

 believe in such mimicry, but I cannot agree with 

 them, so far as the first five of these butterflies are 

 concerned. Blues and coppers are still out in 

 large numbers. One day a small copper butterfly 

 settled on my coat, hooked its legs into the nap, 

 and evidently proposed to spend the night on me. 

 Blues I found as plentiful as ever a few days ago, 

 on the grassy hillside. They were sleeping on 

 the dry grass heads, though a few chose the hard 

 brown heads of plantains. Every blue slept in 

 the customary position, head downward, the small 

 copper and brown argus in the same way ; whilst 

 the heath slept horizontally. 



If the blues had been on the flowers of the 

 smaller field scabious, which were plentiful at this 

 spot, they would have matched the environment 

 better than they did the grass heads and brown 

 bents, for there is a great deal of silvery-blue 

 colour on even the under dress of these butterflies' 

 wings that would match fairly well the colour of 

 the blossom. The lesser scabious matures its seeds 

 in a bristly ball or burr. They are neatly packed 

 together, and pass quickly through a series of 

 changes in colour from green through mauve or 

 lavender to grey and brown. The whole might be 

 a pincushion of Lilliput covered with finest needle- 

 work to match, a lovely little thing in finish. But 

 no butterfly went to bed on the seeding scabious, 



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