66 "MIMICRY RINGS" [ch. 



Mullerian mimicry would regard it as an excellent 

 example of that phenomenon. For those who believe 

 only in Batesian mimicry D. plexippus, being the 

 scarcer insect, must be regarded as the mimic and 

 D. chrysippus as the model. In both of these species 

 the sexes are similar, whereas in the other three members 

 of the " ring " the female alone exhibits the resemblance. 

 One of these three species is the common Nymphaline, 

 Hypolimnas misippus, of which the female bears an 

 extraordinary likeness to D. chrysippus when set and 

 pinned out on cork in the ordinary way. The male, 

 however (PI. IV, fig. 8), is an insect of totally 

 different appearance. The upper surfaces of the wings 

 are velvety black with a large white patch bordered 

 with purple in the middle of each 1 . The "ring" is 

 completed by the females of Elymnias undularis and 

 Argynnis hyperbius. The former of these belongs to 

 the group of Satyrine butterflies and the female is 

 usually regarded as a mimic of D. plexippus, which 

 it is not unlike in so far as the upper surface of the 

 wings is concerned. Here again the male is an insect 

 of totally dissimilar appearance. Except for a border of 

 lighter brown along the outer edges of the hind wings 

 the upper surface is of a uniform deep purple-brown 



1 H. misippus was at one time regarded as a clear case of Batesian 

 mimicry. But in view of its plentifulness, of the fact that it may be 

 abundant outside the area inhabited by its model, and of the ease 

 with which it can establish itself in parts remote from its original 

 habitat, e.g. S. America, it has come to be regarded by certain supporters 

 of the mimicry theory as a Mullerian mimic. Cf. Poulton, Essays on 

 Evolution, 1908, pp. 215-217. 



