IN DEFENSIVE COLORATION 343 



Common Warning Colours (Miillerian Resemblance). 

 Some of the reasons for this change of view are briefly 

 indicated on pp. 370-6, where a nearly complete list 1 of 

 the examples intended to illustrate Protective Mimicry 

 is quoted. 



The recent sudden growth in the importance of the 

 Miillerian Hypothesis in Lepidoptera dates from two 

 papers 2 published by Dr. F. A. Dixey in 1894. In 

 these it was shown that both Pierines and Papilios enter 

 Mullerian associations. Two years later Dr. Dixey wrote, 3 

 after again discussing the Mullerian relations between 

 Heliconines and Pierines : ' The same argument will 

 apply to features similar to the above which may be seen 

 in certain Papilioninae, Nymphalinae, Erycinidae, and 

 even in some moths. And I may say in passing that 

 Fritz Miiller's principle here referred to appears to me 

 to be of much wider application than has been hitherto 

 supposed. There exist several large groups more or less 

 uniform in their scheme of coloration, though hetero- 

 geneous in their affinities, which it seems almost certain 

 will in the main turn out to be cases of " inedible associa- 

 tions", each one possibly including a few instances of true 

 mimicry within its borders.' 



The wonderful sets of South American butterflies 

 selected by Mr. W. F. H. Blandford from the Godman- 

 Salvin Collection, and exhibited at the Entomological 

 Society of London 4 in 1896 and 1897, a ^ so na d a marked 

 effect in stimulating interest in the Mullerian Hypothesis. 

 It was at once obvious that the most remarkable resem- 

 blances were those between species belonging to the most 

 highly protected groups, and especially between the 

 Ithomiinae and Heliconinae. 



The change of opinion is not only due to a re-study 

 of the old examples, but to entirely new material which 



1 The list is complete except for the examples illustrating the history 

 of the transparent-winged mimics of Hymenoptera. These are quoted 

 on pp. 365-6. 



2 Brit. Assoc. Report^ 1894, p. 692. Abstract. Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond., 

 1894, p. 298. 



3 Trans. Ent. Soc., Lond., 1896, p. 75. 



* Proc. Ent. Soc. t Lond., 1896, p. xxxviii; 1897, p. xxii. 



