THE TESTIMONY OF AN OPPONENT 239 



of the theory of Mimicry. It is also well that 

 he should say of the * great leading aristocratic ' 

 groups which are resembled by other butterflies 

 Danais, Acraea, l Heliconidae ' (including under this 

 head Ithomiinae and Danainae as well as true 

 Heliconinae l ) : 



' One of the most marvellous things in this repre- 

 sentative system is that the great groupes are not only 

 imitated at home, but that the stragglers from two of 

 them in other lands have their mimics as well ; and in 

 the great South American groupe, the Heliconidae, the 

 butterflies of several genera, completely different in their 

 neuration, are inseparable by the unaided sight.' 



It would be hardly possible to produce better 

 indirect evidence of some special quality in the 

 chief models than that afforded by the resem- 

 blances to them formed afresh when stragglers 

 have wandered into other lands. Section VI 

 of the present work is largely concerned with 

 one striking example of the mimetic resemblance 

 by indigenous New World species of invading 

 Danaines from the Old World. Hewitson for 

 a most singular reason rejects the conclusion 

 that the groups in question are specially pro- 

 tected, and concludes by making the jocular 

 suggestion to which Mr. Eltringham directed 

 my attention : 



'Naturalists, Wallace, Bates, and Trimen, who have 

 each studied one of these great groupes in their native 

 land, tell us that they exude a liquid of an offensive 

 1 See pp. 152-4. 



