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NOTE ON THE MIMETIC RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN 

 THE ERYCINID PBAETAXILA POULTONI J. AND 

 T., AND THE AGARISTID IMMETALIA 8ATU- 

 BATA LONGIPALPIS KIRSCH. 



By Professor E. B. POULTON, D.Sc, M.A., F.B.S. 



Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford. 



When Mr. Talbot brought his interesting exhibit to the Entomo- 

 logical Society on October 19, 1921, I assumed that the moth was the 

 model for the butterfly {Prod Ent. Soc, Lond., 1921, p. xc). I was, 

 however, concerned with the curious resemblance of male to female 

 and female to male rather than the determination of the species in 

 a Miillerian pair which had acted as the model for the other — a 

 conclusion for which little evidence was then before me. 



Now that, owing to the kindness of Mr. Talbot, I am in possession 

 of all the known facts, I can only adhere to the same opinion — that 

 the moth has acted as model. No other interpretation of the mimetic 

 likeness seems possible, in view of the fact that the moth has a very 

 wide range and the butterfly a very restricted one. In that limited 

 area the butterfly resembles patterns which are borne by the moth in 

 various other localities as well. 



The specimens of the Agaristid in the collection from Dutch New 

 Guinea, containing nine 3 $ and thirteen $ 2 of the Erycinid, were 

 as follows : — 



8 . f. longipalpis Kirsch (white bands). 



Wanggar, February, one. 



$ . f. longipalpis Kirsch (orange bands). 



Wanggar Kiver, 15 miles from coast, ca. 600 feet, January, two. 

 Nomnagihe, 2,000 feet, January to February, one. 



? . f. brujni Ob. (white bands). 



Wai Sai Biver, 1,000 feet, June and July, one. Wanggar River, 

 15 miles from coast, January, one. 



The numbers are, of course, extremely small, and probably no cri- 



