562 PROF. E. B. rOTILTON : NATURAL SELECTION 



In the summer of last year (1897) an excellent opportunity of 

 gauging the opinion of entomologists upon this question was 

 presented by a discussion carried on at two successive meetings 

 of the Entomological Society of London. From the printed 

 report in tlie ' Proceedings ' of the Society, I select the following 

 adverse expressions of opinion as regards the adequacy of 

 natural selection to produce mimetic resemblance, and the state- 

 ments of any alternative theories or suggestions to account for 

 the facts. The quotations are given in the order in which they 

 are printed. 



Mr. "W. F. H. Blandford said " it was conceivable that the 

 causes, in most cases unknown, which brought about modifica- 

 tions in the colour and markings of a species in association with 

 its geographical range, might have produced identical results 

 in two species of the saine genus, with a common facies, under 

 common conditions." This sentence seems to suggest cautiously 

 the direct influence of climate or some other cause connected 

 with locality. Mr. Blandford, although not disputing the theories 

 of Bates and Fritz Miiller, considered that " they rested very 

 largely on hypothesis and were in want of further support from 

 observation and experiment," and that they failed to account 

 for the perfection of the resemblance. 



Mr. H. J. Elwes thought " there was too much assumption 

 about either the Batesian or Miillerian theories of mimicry," and 

 he doubted the inedibility of the so-called models, and of the 

 members of the Miillerian groups. Some examples were quoted 

 by him as suggestive of similar effects wrought by similar con- 

 ditions of environment. 



Mr. Jacoby considered that the evidence of special protection 

 was insufficient. 



Sir George Hampson " thought the cause demanded by these 

 theories was inadequate to produce the results assigned to it." 

 In S. India he had found it " quite an exceptional thing to see 

 birds catch, or even attempt to catch, butterflies." 



The Hon. "Walter Eothschild considered " it was much more 

 conceivable that certain climatic influences, &c., had played a 

 j)art in bringing about these resemblances, and he thought that 

 these groups assumed the same appearance because one given 

 influence was at work on them." 



Canon W. W. Fowler thought " there was too much assump- 

 tion about the current theories." 



