382 THE PLACE OF MIMICRY, ETC. 



species concerned would be very welcome for the solution 

 of this difficult problem, it must be remembered that two 

 great collections have come from this very district. The 

 Leech Collection of Palaearctic Butterflies in the British 

 Museum of Natural History gives the following localities : 

 — H. misippus : Syria, Sultanpore, Kulu, Kashmir, Loo- 

 choo ; A thyma punctata : Chang-yang, Central China ; 

 Limenitis albomaculata : Moupin, Western China. 1 Mon- 

 sieur Charles Oberthur, with a much longer and larger 

 experience than any other naturalist, adds Western China 

 to the range of the A thyma, summing up the distribution 

 of both it and the Limenitis in the statement that they 

 inhabit the frontiers of Western China and Eastern 

 Thibet, especially Moupin, Siao-Lou, Tien-Tsuen, and 

 Tse-Kow. 2 Monsieur Oberthur also kindly informs me 

 that he has never received H. misippus from the district 

 in which the two mimetic males occur. 



It is to be hoped that specially directed observations 

 on the migratory birds of" Western China may yield 

 further evidence bearing upon the provisional hypothesis 

 proposed on pp. 217-18. It has also been suggested on 

 p. 218 that the mimicry was favoured by an initial re- 

 semblance. This probably holds good for the iridescent 

 blue margins of the principal white markings as well as for 

 the other elements of the pattern. Thus it is not difficult 

 to understand how the A thyma may have arisen from 

 a species like Athyma (Pantoporia) cama from the Hima- 

 layas, Assam, and Upper Burma. The white markings 

 of this species are surrounded by a bluish margin, while 

 the pattern is not very widely different. 



The interest and peculiar difficulty of this example of 

 mimicry have led me to add the above note. The fact 

 that the females of the Athyma and Limenitis differ from 

 the males had escaped me, and I owe the opportunity of 

 now rectifying the omission to my friend Mr. G. A. K. 

 Marshall. 



1 Catalogue 0/ the Leech Collection, by R. South, London, 1902, 

 pp. 56, 63. 



2 Bull. Soc. Ent.Fr. 1902, pp. 161-2. 



