364 Praetaxila poultoni and immetalia saturata longipalpis 



terion of the abundance of the moth, because, as Mr. Talbot writes, 

 " The collectors made a point of catching what they knew to be a 

 species never seen by them before, and paid little attention to a moth 

 which had been taken on previous expeditions." 



On the facts before us we must modify the original statement that 

 the male mimics the female, and the female the male, as follows. The 

 male Erycinid (orange-banded) mimics one form of the female Agaristid, 

 while the female Erycinid (white-banded) mimics the other form of 

 female, as well as the male Agaristid. Thus, as constantly happens 

 in mimicry, the advantage lies with the female, which has a model of 

 its own sex as well as of the other. It must be remembered, however, 

 that a single male of a new race of another Agaristid, Argyrolepidia 

 aurea Jord., was present in the same collection, having been taken at 

 Wanggar in February. To this specimen the male Erycinid bore an 

 even closer resemblance than to the orange-banded females of the 

 Immetalia ; but until we know the female, and more about the relative 

 abundance of the new form, it is impossible to speak confidently of its 

 significance in this association. It is much to be desired that a long 

 series of the two Agaristids and the Erycinid from the same locality 

 may be available for future study. 



Looking at the Erycinidae as a group, those of tropical America, 

 when they enter into mimetic associations, are generally mimics, often 

 of Ithomiine butterflies, often of moths, as pointed out by Godman 

 and Salvin in their great monograph on the Lepidoptera of the " Biologia 

 Centrali-Americana." I cannot recall an undoubted example of a 

 Neotropical Erycinid acting as a model. On the other hand, among 

 the comparatively scanty Erycinidae of the Old World, there is the 

 Chinese Stiboges nympJiidia But!, which is almost certainly the 

 model, and not the mimic of the Epiplemid moth, Psychostrophia 

 nymphidiaria Ob. 



The Agaristidae freely act as models, especially in Miillerian 

 mimicry. A good example from Borneo is figured by Shelford in 

 P.Z.S., 1902, vol. ii, pi. xxi, figs. 7, 8, where the mimic is Eterusia 

 obliquiaria Walk., belonging to the specially protected Zygaenidae 

 (Chalcosiinae) . In tropical West Africa there is the well-known Nym- 

 phaline mimic Euphaedra eusemoides S. and K., which is known to fly 

 with its Agaristid models, differing in habits from its nearest relatives, 

 as recorded by Dr. S. A. Neave in Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1908, p. lxxx. 

 Agaristids also enter into Miillerian groups as mimics a good example 

 being Xanthospilopteryx poggei Dew., with the pattern of the much- 



