DIANA THE MIMIC OF A MIMIC 189 



THE FEMALE OF ARGYNNIS (SEMNOPSYCHE) 

 DIANA (CE.) A MIMIC OF LIMENITIS AST Y AN AX 



The comparatively narrow range of this species 

 is, as Scudder points out, wholly included within 

 that of astyanax (I.e., 1802). The Mimicry is 

 confined to the upper surface, where the blue tint 

 has even less sheen than that of any other member 

 of the group clustered round the brilliant philenor. 

 Apart from the blue expanse, which he admits to 

 be mimetic, Dr. F. A. Dixey considers that the 

 female of diana belongs to a set of dark female 

 forms well known in Argynnis, forms which he 

 believes to be ancestral. 1 It is probable that ' the 

 recent evolution of L. astyanax provided this 

 ancestral form with a model which it could 

 approach by small and easy steps of variation '. 2 



THE BEARING UPON THEORIES OF MIMICRY OF 

 PHARM. PHILENOR AND ITS MIMICS 



Haase, who always shows an imperfect appre- 

 ciation of the scope of Fritz Muller's principle, 

 apparently regarded all the species mentioned in 

 the preceding section as simple Batesian mimics 

 of philenor, neglecting the mimetic relationships 

 between the mimics themselves. This interpre- 

 tation is unconvincing, and most naturalists will 

 agree with Scudder in his hesitation to accept 

 the two Nymphalines, astyanax and diana (female), 

 as simple mimics of philenor. The Miillerian 



1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (1890), 89-129. 2 Ibid. (1908), 475. 



