81 



surface of secondaries, as if the pattern of one were photographed upon the other, is 

 deserving of especial notice in this particular. All shadows are photographs which may 

 deepen with time. 



Among tropical butterflies Mimicry, as illustrated by Bates, Wallace, Fritz Miiller, 

 Darwin, plays an important part. The fact that certain species (Ituna, Euplcea) are 

 protected by a peculiar smell from their natural enemies, seems to have induced a 

 variation in other Lepidoptera not so protected, by which they approach in colour, pattern 

 the protected species and are so preserved. But not only do 

 the Lepidoptera mimic each other, but also other orders of 

 insects and natural objects such as leaves and sticks, the 

 bark of trees, etc. It may be assumed as a general principle 

 that any variation in a direction which would protect the 

 species would be preserved, although it is difficult to 

 think out the steps in such a process. The fact that through- 

 out nature form is conditioned by environment covers such 

 general resemblances as caterpillars to stalks and butterflies to 

 the leaves of plants. It is only when we take animals out of 

 their usual surrounding that they afford contrasts and strike 

 the eye. The resemblances of the Sesiidce, or Clear Wings, to 

 wasps has been often noted (Fig. 43). We have a species in 

 our Fauna, Sciapteron simulans, in which this resemblance is 

 carried to a startling extent. I was much struck by the way 

 in which an Orthopterous insect, living on the leaves of garden 

 Okra, which I observed near Savannah, copied the beetle 

 Tetracha Virginica. A special enumeration of the cases of protective mimicry already 

 well ascertained would alone fill a large volume. 



The mass of living forms of butterflies and moths must be regarded as the descendants 

 of original fewer and simple types. The probability that the Lepidoptera root in the 

 Neuroptera, is assisted by the known transformation of the mouth parts and the survival 

 of genera with decidedly neuropterous habit, structure, form. Fritz Miiller, whose 

 researches are worthy of our most siricere admiration, has traced the resemblances between 

 the Phryganidce and the Lepidoptera. Speyer considers the Psychidce and Tineidce the 

 nearest to the Neuroptera, and Packard's early studies on the structure of the thorax in 

 Hepialus have shown how near existing types of these two suborders of insects approach 

 each other. No doubt in Hepialus and Cossus we have ancient types surviving ; many 

 years ago I read a paper trying to show that our primitive Lepidoptera had aquatic larvae 

 (like Arzama yet retains), and less perfect transformations. I differ with Butler as-*o 

 Cossus, not being able to consider it structurally as allied either to Castnia or Sphinx, 

 but as more directly representing a low or old type from which the spinners were, later 

 on, derived. An outgrowth of a primitive unsightly structure, the Lepidoptera now fill 

 the world with beauty and add to the pleasures of mankind. Life, always transforming 

 itself, perishing to appear in new shapes, is the perpetuum mobile of the universe. It is 

 certainly not to be proved that this will ever disappear if we leave out of sight the specu- 

 lations as to the extinguishing of the sun, which are perhaps more curious than probable. 

 It is a condition of our minds that we imagine a necessary end to all things. Nature, in 

 fact, ends every instant only to transform — bearing children and devouring them. It is 

 our poetical idealization of Nature which makes life supportable to thinking minds. We 

 ansAver the unanswerable questions, whence, whither, wherefore, of our existence by a 

 poetical apotheosis, or a scheme of usefulness. But when we lay these toys of the mind 

 aside, the misery and faithlessness is only too real. To perish, and to perish in such 

 company ! Nor does the materialistic selfishness and insincerity of the present 

 century console us ! At a time when more than ever the principles of Christianity are 

 needed, Christianity is going out. Almost do we prefer the intellectual swindle of the 

 last century to what we now suffer. Money rules the world, and the commercial balance 

 sheet is waited for ; not the spring and the new year. Everybody asks me, Does your 

 Entomology, your Art, pay ? How much do you get by it 1 I have even been suspected 

 of using it merely to make money by it, which, in one sense, complimented me. But 



6 (EN.) 



