\l> \l-ll 209 



mates, These i>;irii,-illy developed featurei >n the un< tee <>f the. 



male- enable US tn tr.uc tin- hi OWth <>! llic mimetic 



pattern." Starling from J'irn\ locusfo t it L9 an 6 to Mylothrn 



I v pcrti, thence !( .17. lorcn<i, and from thi- to the- mimrtiY M . />vrr/i<i. 



ited a be^inninij, however small, -IK h U the ha-al red ton* i 

 the normal IMerines, an elaborate and practically perfect mimeti. 

 pattern mav he evolved therefrom by -imple and 



Kurthcrmore ijn answer to the serond question), it doe- not tax the 



ination to admit that any one of the-e color pattern- ha> at least 



ionally been sufficiently sui^i-stivr of the hcliconiid ty|>e to pre- 



Berve the life of its possessor; especially when both bird and insect, were 



on the wini; and perhaps some distance apart, when even a momentary 



Hash of red or yellow from a pierid might be enough to save it from 



attack. 



It is highly desirable, of course, that this plausible explanation 

 should be tested as far as possible by observations in the field and by 

 experiments as well. 



Mimicry and Mendelism. The weight of evidence is at present 

 vastly in favor of the theory of mimicry as against any other explanation 

 of the facts, even though the theory is sometimes stretched to impossible 

 limits by some of its enthusiastic adherents. The only opposing opinion 

 that has sufficient plausibility to demand much consideration as yet 

 is that of Punnett. 



In India and Ceylon the butterfly Papilio polytes has in addition to 

 the normal female a second form of female which mimics P. aristolochice 

 and a third which imitates P. hector; polytes being palatable to birds 

 and it- two models unpalatable. 



This case, described by Wallace more than fifty years ago, is one of 



the classic examples of mimicry. Punnett holds, however, that these 



iblances are of no practical value and that natural selection has 



played no part in the formation of these polymorphic forms and suggests 



that Mendelism offers a better explanation of the phenomenon a 



stion that should be tested experimentally. 



Adaptive Colors in General. Several classes of adaptive colors 

 have been discriminated and defined by Poulton, whose classification, 

 niewhat arbitrary but nevertheless very useful, is given 

 below, in its abridged form. 



