26 OLD-WORLD MIMICS [ch. 



group owing to the fact that the larvae feed on the 

 poisonous chmbing plants of the genus Aristolochia. 

 It is from this group that all Papilios which serve as 

 models are drawn. No mimics of other unpalatable 

 groups such as Danaines are to be found among the 

 Oriental Poison-eaters. In the other two sections of 

 the genus mimics are not infrequent (cf. Appendix II), 

 though probably none of them serve as models. To 

 the Pharmacophagus group belong the most gorgeous 

 insects of Indo-Malaya — ^the magnificent Ornithoptera, 

 largest and most splendid of butterflies. It is not a 

 large proportion of the members of the group which 

 serve as models, and these on the whole are among the 

 smaller and less conspicuous forms. In all cases the 

 mimic, when a butterfly, belongs to the Papilio section 

 of the three sections into which Haase divided the 

 family (cf. Appendix II). Papilio aristolocJiiae (PI. V, 

 fig. 5), for example, is mimicked by a female form of 

 Papilio polytes, and the geographical varieties of this 

 widely spread model are generally closely paralleled by 

 those of the equally wide spread mimic. For both forms 

 range from Western India across to Eastern China. 

 Another poison-eater, P. coon, provides a model for 

 one of the females of the common P. memnon. It is 

 curious that in those species of the poison-eaters which 

 serve as models the sexes are practically identical in 

 pattern, and are mimicked by certain females only 

 of the other two Papiho groups, whereas in the Orni- 

 thoptera, which also belong to the poison-eaters, the 

 difference between the sexes is exceedingly striking. 



