Botany and Zoology. 287 
Leptalis Theonée in exhibiting the production, generally, of only one local 
form in a district, instead of ey As far as my observations go, this seems 
to ha ihe en the most frequent course in n Ww Tac 
would with difficulty be formed i ig a fimited area, when the individuals live in 
close neighborhood, except in such cases as our Leptalis, where rigid destruc- 
tion of intermediate ide is going on, thus restricting na at - mates to 
the surviving forms; or in such genera as Ithomia, wher the 
insects carefully nik ‘their exact counterparts in pairing.” 
In the latter case, where each sort strictly sisePleeta the races once 
originated woul kept distinct as long as they existed. Mr. Bates 
always found the pair to be precisely the same in color and markings. 
variation to be h id. And it would, as Mr. Bates remarks, enable a 
number of closely allied forms to exist, either together or in contiguous 
areas, ibgeic ge matin 
In his n Mechanitis Polymnia, as illustrating the course 
apparently followed bys nature in the formation of local species, the author 
“We find, in this most instructive case, all the stages of the process, ier 
the commencement of the formation of a local variety (var. Egaénsis) to 
perfect es ip 8g of one (var. Lysimnia) considered by all authors as a bom 
cae n species, most of the local varieties are connecte vib pape 
feos PS tartsar exhibiting all the shades of variation; and i 
this secount on. A that we — them to be varieties. In the species allied to 
e form: in a complete state of cer Mes the 
exception af T. uisiiens, which throws light on the rest and 
) a 
are consi pecies ; they are, in fact, pe good species, Tike 
rt forms considered as such in natural history. It is only of 
variable spec t we can obtain a clue to the explanation 
such species must be studied in nature, and wi ference to the geo- 
Heo eem relations of their varieties. Many a naturalists, who receive 
onnectedly the different varieties of any treat them all as inde- 
pendent species; by such a od giataases 6 it nh _ wonder that they have faith in 
the absolute distinctness and immutability of 
The mimetic analogies, of which many a the Heliconide are the ob 
jects, hav ve been mentioned by modern authors who have written on | 
all the same family aspect,’ while the imitators or capes species are 
dissimilar to their nearest allies,—are perverted, as it were, from the facies 
of Shay ai to which they severally belong. 
The resemblance is so close that it is only after 4 practice that the true 
ike be distinguished from the counterfeit when on the wing in their native 
