500 MR. TRIMEN ON MIMETIC ANALOGIES AMONG AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 



have published (' Bhopaloeera Africse Australis,' pt. ii. p. 335) an interesting note by 

 Mr. J. H. Bowker on the manner in which Junonia (Enone, one of the Nymphalidce, is 

 systematically hunted down by a small Kaffrarian lizard. This Junonia is a particularly 

 wary, active insect, and must give its pursuers infinitely more trouble to capture than 

 would the slow, inert, grass-loving Acrcem of the same district; yet the lizards leave the 

 latter unmolested. On more than one occasion, I have seen the larger Drasjonflies catch 

 Butterflies, both in England and Natal. Fieridce were the victims in both countries ; but 

 in Natal the ubiquitous Acrcece were certainly passed by, and the more active insects 

 selected. In the colony in question, several species of Acacia secrete a viscid fluid ; and 

 the spaces on the branches where this freshly exudes from the bark are a great resort of 

 insects of all Orders, which assemble to imbibe the liquid. The larger Mantidm take 

 dvantage of these gatherings to secure a plentiful and easy living; and one of them is 



ually to be 



or close to the group of butterflies, beetles, wasps, ants, and 



flies attracted to the feast. As long as there is anything left to drink, there is no lack 

 of visitors, and the Mantis fattens on numerous victims. The wings rejected by the 

 devourer, who seems to prefer butterflies to other insects, in a short time rather con- 

 s | ucuously sprinkle the ground or herbage under one of these feeding-places ; and in a 

 tew instances, where I chanced upon accessible spots, I searched among the disjecta 

 membra for remains of Danais or Acraa, but in vain. It is necessary to observe that I 

 cannot recollect having distinguished Butterflies of either of those genera at such drinking- 



statious ; but the exudations were often situated at a height that precluded the certain 

 distinction of any but very large insects, and there is apparently no reason why the 

 fluid so universally appreciated should fail to attract those butterflies. 



I t hink that the facts already placed on record, to the more important of which I have 

 referred, may fairly be urged in support of the position that the Banaidce and Acrmda 

 are exempted or protected in a very great degree from the attacks of those enemies to 

 which the diurnal Lepidoptera generally, in their adult state, are constantly exposed. 

 1 he, are many instances of Butterflies, of various families, whose great abundance indi- 

 eat .that they have, by some means, attained immunity from persecution, or risen 

 upenor to adverse circumstances ; but, as groups, the Danaidce and Acrceidcz, wherever 

 h< occur, are unquestionably preeminent in individuals, if not in species, and must 

 tttfce rank as the most perfectly adapted of all their Order to the existing conditions of 



\!l! W^Tr!" 8 ,* f " ld Aat til0Se famiHes of Butterflies which hold the first place 



ostinn in ,« f t^ a Stl ' UCtUre Whi0h has led Mr. Bates to assign to them a 



Z 211 of H T T em " ° f dassiflcat ™> ^ the head of the order Lepidoptera*. 



ZSS ^^tTfTt! t aracter of the Bhopalocera as a sroup - which 



and tins Ins been hcitl Heterocera and from other Orders of insects ; 



ha* assi-n,d the hmlT^^ ** ^ Universal c0 ™rt with which entomologists 



*«m ^affinity to Z [otbvTl T^T *° *** ^* & ^ "f 



-uoths by the fully developed fore legs, as well as by other cha- 



* See Trans. Linn Sn<> «%1 ^ — 



• 8* vol. „„„ an(i Jouraal of Entomologyi j,^ ^ ^ 



