84 THE CASE OF PAPILIO POLYTES [ch. 



white markings on the hind wing were readily confused 

 with those of the male, and one had to depend entirely 

 on the lighter fore wing. Unless the bird were keener 

 sighted than the man the A form would be more likely 

 to be taken in mistake for its unprotected relative than 

 avoided for its resemblance to the presumably un- 

 palatable model. On the other hand, if the bird were 

 sufficiently keen sighted never to confuse the A female 

 with the male form its sight would be too keen to be 

 imposed upon by such resemblance as exists between 

 the A female and P. aristolochiae. 



These, however, are not the only criticisms of the 

 theory of mimicry which the study of this species forces 

 upon us. Papilio polytes is one of the few mimetic 

 species that has been bred, and in no other case of 

 polymorphism is the relation between the different 

 forms so clearly understood. For this result we are 

 indebted mainly to the careful experiments of Mr J. C. F. 

 Fryer, who recently devoted the best part of two years 

 to breeding the different forms of this butterfly in 

 Ceylon 1 . Fryer came to the conclusion that an ex- 

 planation of this curious case is possible on ordinary 

 Mendelian lines. At first sight the breeding results 

 appear complicated, for any one of the three forms of 

 female can behave in several different ways. For the 

 sake of simplicity we may for the moment class together 

 the A and H females as the mimetic females, the non- 

 mimetic being represented by the M or male-like females. 



1 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 204, 1913. 



