282 MIMICRY AND NATURAL SELECTION 



(Papilio, Charaxes, &c.), which in many Lycaenidae are 

 antenna-like and associated with eye-spots, suggesting the 

 appearance of a head. The resemblance is further inten- 

 sified in the resting position by movements of the hind- 

 wings, which cause the apparent antennae to pass and 

 repass each other. Such structures and marks are con- 

 stantly injured or entirely bitten away in fresh specimens. 

 Direct observation of actual attack by birds and lizards 

 has also been made by Mr. Marshall and others, 1 so that 

 it maybe safely assumed that the doubts thrown upon the 

 reality of the struggle for life in butterflies have their 

 origin in the want of observation specially directed to this 

 end. The majority of naturalist-travellers are chiefly 

 concerned with collecting, and it is not surprising that 

 many of them have not seen what they never looked for. 

 If time had permitted, many other aspects of Mimetic 

 Resemblance might have been dwelt upon, and it would 

 have been found, as it has been found with those which 

 I have had the honour to bring to your notice, that all 

 are readily explicable by the theory of Natural Selection, 

 but remain mere coincidences under any other alternative 

 theory as yet suggested. 2 



APPENDIX 



The evidence collected by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, 

 alluded to on pp. 281-2, is now published in his great me- 

 moir on The Bionomics of South African Insects? The 



1 Two members of the Fifth International Congress who were present 

 at my lecture informed me afterwards that they had witnessed such 

 attacks. Professor E. Penard of Geneva saw a bird, probably a sparrow, 

 persistently pursue and at the third attempt capture a white butterfly 

 (probably a species of Pieris\ The incident happened in the early 

 summer of 1900, in a park near Geneva. Mr. F. Muir, of Ipswich, 

 England, expressed surprise that any doubts should have been raised. 

 He had frequently observed such attacks at Delagoa Bay and other 

 places on the East coast of Africa, and had seen birds waiting in trees or 

 bushes and darting out at butterflies as they approached. 



2 Further evidence is discussed in the writer's paper in the Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. Zoo/., vol. xxvi, p. 558, reprinted as Essay viii in the present volume 

 (p. 220). 



3 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1902, pp. 287-584. 



