in PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 63 



theseus, that several writers have classed them as the same 

 species. Papilio liris, found only in the island of Timor, is 

 accompanied there by P. aenomaus, the female of which so 

 exactly resembles it that they can hardly be separated in the 

 cabinet, and on the wing are quite undistinguishable. But 

 one of the most curious cases is the fine yellow -spotted 

 Papilio coon, which is unmistakably imitated by the female 

 tailed form of Papilio memnon. These are both from 

 Sumatra ; but in North India P. coon is replaced by another 

 species, which has been named P. doubledayi, having red 

 spots instead of yellow ; and in the same district the corre- 

 sponding female tailed form of Papilio androgeus, sometimes 

 considered a variety of P. memnon, is similarly red-spotted. 

 Mr. Westwood has described some curious day-flying moths 

 (Epicopeia) from North India, which have the form and colour 

 of Papilios of this section, and two of these are very good 

 imitations of Papilio polydorus and Papilio varuna, also from 

 North India. 



Almost all these cases of mimicry are from the tropics, 

 where the forms of life are more abundant, and where insect 

 development especially is of unchecked luxuriance ; but there 

 are also one or two instances in temperate regions. In North 

 America, the large and handsome red and black butterfly 

 Danais Archippus is very common ; and the same country is 

 inhabited by Limenitis Misippus, which closely resembles the 

 Danais, while it differs entirely from every species of its own 

 genus. 



The only case of probable mimicry in our own country 

 is that of the common white moth (Spilosoma menthastri), 

 referred to at p. 56 as being rejected by young turkeys 

 among hundreds of other moths on which they greedily 

 fed. Each bird in succession took hold of this moth and 

 threw it down again, as if too nasty to eat. Mr. Jenner 

 Weir also found that this moth was refused by the Bullfinch, 

 Chaffinch, Yellow Hammer, and Red Bunting, but eaten after 

 much hesitation by the Robin. We may therefore fairly con- 

 clude that this species would be disagreeable to many other 

 birds, and would thus have an immunity from attack, which 

 may be the cause of its great abundance and of its conspicu- 

 ous white colour. Now it is a curious thing that there is 



