24 o THEORIES OF MIMICRY 



white appearance. This fact holds true even for such 

 a specialized and perfect mimic as Dismorphifa orise. 



F. D. Godman, F.R.S., and O. Salvin, F.R.ST, 1 speak of 

 these hidden chalky patches, surrounded by a silky area 

 covered by peculiar scales, as acharacter of the Dismorphina. 

 The interpretation of the patch as a sexual brand, perhaps 

 with the nature of a scent-producing organ, does not in 

 any way disprove the suggestion here adopted that the 

 white pigment in the scales is a survival from an ancestral 

 condition still found over the greater part of the wing- 

 surface in so many non-mimetic Pierinae, as well as in the 

 males of many mimetic species (e. g. in the genus Mylo- 

 thris). It should be noted, however, that the patch is not 

 white in all species of the Dismorphina. Mr. Belt 2 states 

 that the white patch is usually concealed by the males, 

 as indeed may be inferred from the change in character 

 of the surface, which indicates the normal amount of 

 overlap of the fore upon the hind wing. The same 

 author, believing that the white patch is ancestral and 

 has been retained by the operation of Sexual Selection, 

 makes the daring suggestion that it may be ' an attraction 

 in courtship, to exhibit to the females, and thus gratify 

 a deep-seated preference for the normal colour of the 

 order to which the Leptalides [Dismorphina] belong '. 



The rigid restriction of mimetic effects to those parts 

 of the surface which can be seen tells very strongly 

 against any theory which is not based on the principle 

 of Selection. 



7. Essential Nature of these Resemblances : their Analysis 

 into tfie several kinds of Effect produced. 



The resemblances under discussion are made up of 

 elements of very different kinds combined in single 

 individuals ; but the essentially composite nature of the 

 effect easily yields to analysis. Some of these complex 

 combinations only require to be stated in order to show 

 the inadequacy of the theory which is most usually 



In the Biologia Centrali- American a (Rhopalocera, vol. ii, p. 173). 

 1 Naturalist in Nicaragua, and ed., London, 1888, pp. 384, 385. 



