574 The Zoologist — February, 1867. 



resemblance to a leaf which characterises the female. So in the well-known case of 

 Diadema bolina, the male was a richly-coloured blue, white and black insect, while the 

 female was orange-brown, quite differently marked, and resembled most minutely 

 Danais Chrysippus, which had a range nearly coincident with it. It was suggested 

 that the explanation of the anomalous insect which was the origin of these remarks 

 was, that the female, by acquiring tlie metallic-blue gloss, was made closely to resemble 

 the common Euploea Midamus which inhabited the same localities; it thus gained an 

 advantage in being mistaken for a species which insectivorous birds did not attack. 



Mr. Bates was of opinion that the individual of Pieris Pyrrha described by Professor 

 Weslwood presented simply an instance of unequal hermaphroditism, three-fourths 

 male and one-fourth female. As such it was a mere monstrosity, and had no bearing 

 whatever on the question of the origin of species; the Darwinian theory dealt only 

 with variations that were propagated, and not with monstrosities, the peculiarities of 

 which were not tiansmitted to their descendants. With regard to those cases where 

 the female sex of a species alone was found to mimic species of other families, the 

 male remaining true to the normal type of its group, he thought it was absolutely 

 necessary that an entomologist should have had opportunities of observing the habits 

 of the species before drawing conclusions concerning them. In all such cases he had 

 found that the females had a different mode of life from the males. In Pieris Pyrrha 

 and other allied species the females were confined to llu; shades of the forest, where 

 they flew near the ground, and were slow in their movements; whilst the males spent 

 the hours of sunlight flying about open places, in company with the males of a great 

 number of other butterflies ; they resorted to the forest shades only towards evening or 

 on cloudy days. The cause of the fem-ile of Pieris Pyrrha having been brought to 

 resemble a Hcliconid butterfly was the same as that which had drawn out the 

 wonderful mimetic dress of the Leplalides ; namely the protection which such 

 resemblance afforded them against the persecutions of insectivorous animals. A more 

 remarkable case than Pieris Pyrrha was that of Papilio Torqnatus, a well-known 

 Brazilian butterfly, of light yellow and black colours (iu the male). Like the male of 

 Pieris Pyrrha, Papilio Torquatus (male) spent his days in the open sunshine, whilst 

 the female was confined to the shades of the forest, flying heavily and depositing her 

 eggs one by one underneath the leaves of low trees. The female offered the most 

 striking contrast in colours to the male, being black with white spots and crimson 

 macular belt. It was significant that the dominant forms of Papilioues of the forest 

 shades of tropical America had precisely that style of coloration; but the importance 

 of the present case lay in this, that the female Torquatus presented local varieties iu the 

 various regions inhabited by the species, the male remaining unchanged, and the 

 varieties were adapted iu dress to the species of the dominant iEueas group peculiar to 

 the localities. Thus on the Lower Amazons the form of the female was that which 

 had been named P. Caudius by Hiihner, having a while spot on the fore wing, and 

 a crimson belt on the hind wing, precisely as in the females of the common species 

 inhabiting the same region, e.g. P. ./Eneas, P. Parsodes, P. Echelus, P. Ergeleles, &c. 

 On the Upper Amazons, the female was very variable, but the commonest varieties 

 resembled closely the females of the species of the jEneas group most prevalent there, 

 namely, P. Lysander and P. Bolivar: the resemblance to the female Bolivar was most 

 extraordinary, for in that species the crimson macular bell was replaced by yellow. 

 Mr. Bates also made some remarks in answer to the objections which Professor 



