COLOR AND PATTERN IN ANIMALS 423 



details in black and whitish, copy faithfully the details in Anosia; 

 only in the addition of a thin blackish line across the discal area 

 of the hind wings does archippus show any noticeable difference. 

 The viceroy is believed not to be distasteful to birds, but its 

 close mimicry of the distasteful monarch undoubtedly leads 

 to its being constantly mistaken for it by the birds and thus 

 left unmolested. 



The subject of mimicry has not been studied largely among 

 the insects of our country, but in the tropics and subtropics 

 numerous striking examples of mimetic forms have been noted 

 and written about. The members of two large families of butter- 

 flies, the Danaidse and Heliconidse, are distasteful to birds, 

 and are mimicked by many species of other butterfly families, 

 especially the Pieridse, and by the swallowtails, Papilionidse. 

 Many plates illustrating such cases have been published by 

 Poulton and Marshall, Haase, Weismann, and others. Shelford, 

 in an extended account of mimicry as exemplified among the 

 insects of Borneo, refers to and illustrates many striking ex- 

 amples among the beetles, the Hemiptera, Diptera, Orthoptera, 

 Neuroptera, and moths; distasteful Lycid beetles are closely 

 mimicked by other beetles, by Hemiptera, and by moths; 

 distasteful ladybird beetles are mimicked by Hemiptera, 

 Orthoptera, and by other beetles; stinging Hymenoptera are 

 mimicked by stingless Hymenoptera, by beetles, flies, bugs, 

 and moths. Poulton and Marshall, in their account of mimicry 

 among South African insects, publish many colored plates 

 revealing most striking resemblances between insects well 

 defended by inedibility or defensive weapons, and their mim- 

 ickers. Our space unfortunately prevents any specific con- 

 sideration of these various interesting cases. 



The special conditions under which mimicry exists have been 

 seriously studied and are of extreme interest. It is obvious that 

 the inedible or defended mimicked form must be more abundant 

 than the mimicker, so that the experimenting young bird or 

 lizard may have several chances to one of getting an ill taste 

 or a sting when he attacks an insect of certain type or pattern. 

 This requirement of relative abundance of mimicker and 

 mimicked seems actually met, as proved by observation. In 

 some cases only females of a species indulge in mimicry, the 

 males being unmodified. This is explained on the ground of 

 the particular necessity for protection of the egg-laden, heavy- 



