38 NEW-WORLD MIMICS [ch. 



Gay and pleasing as are the designs turned out the 

 palette is a small one and invention is circumscribed. 

 Under such conditions it might well be supposed 

 that instances of close resemblance between different 

 species would be numerous, and this in effect is what 

 we find. 



As in Asia with its Euploeines and Danaines, 

 and in Africa with its Danaines and Acraeines, so 

 in S. America are the fashions set by two dominant 

 groups of models. These are the Heliconinae and 

 the Ithomiinae, both peculiar to this region and both 

 characterised, like the Old-world Danaids, by slow 

 flight and great tenacity of life. Both five on poisonous 

 plants — the Heliconines on Passifloras and the Itho- 

 miines on Solanaceae. In both groups, but more 

 especially in the Ithomiinae, the species are numerous, 

 and the number of individuals in a species often 

 beyond computation. From the point of view of 

 mimicry these two groups have so much in common 

 that they may conveniently be considered together. 



It was from among the Ithomiines, as already 

 pointed out, that the models came for the Pierine 

 mimics of the genus Dismorphia upon which Bates 

 founded the theory of mimicry. Though the Pierine 

 mimics are the most striking the Heliconines and 

 Ithomiines are mimicked by members of other groups. 

 A few Papilios (PL X, fig. 8), certain Nymphalines 

 such as Protogonius (PI. X, fig. 9), Eresia, Phyciodes 

 and Colaenis (PI. XI, fig. 4), together with various 

 day-flying moths, more particularly of the genera 



