THEORIES OF MIMICRY 



5 6 7 



have expected to find all species of the classes above referred to proving 

 to be by one means or another at the minimum of recognizability as 

 animals, and at the same time, at a corresponding minimum of palata- 

 bility ; and behold, that is just what we find ! We find in the very 

 ranks of the supposed mimetics (a term which asserts a protection in- 

 volving conspicuousness of the protected individual) the actual climax 

 of invisibility, as Bates practically testifies in the above extract, and as 

 I too, and all others who have studied these insects in their homes, must 

 testify. (In deep forest shades the actual illumination is faint, and 

 objects show most when they come between the beholder and regions of 

 more lighted foliage beyond or up nearer the forest's top. In these cir- 

 cumstances all rank patterns are potent to thwart the revealing-power 

 of silhouette, and behold, here we find the very prince of silhouette- 

 thwarters — transparency itself ! ) 



As to the impression that " flaunting flight " (i. e., slow or weak 

 flight), gaudy costume and unpalatability keep together, they do not do 

 this to any very impressive degree, as the accompanying table will re- 

 mind the student. Entomologists will see that this table is sufficiently 

 correct for my purpose. 



Acme of Respective Traits 



Of Strength 



and Speed of 



Flight. 



Of Gaudiness 

 of Costume. 



Of Slowness. 



Of Dulness of 

 Costume. 



Of Alleged 

 UDpalatability. 



Morpho. 

 Papilio. 



Morpho. 

 Papil o. 

 Heliconius. 



Heliconius. 



The whole 



"ruimetic" group 



proper. 



Heliconivs. 



The whole 



"mimetic" group. 



In fact, one finds, as one would have expected, that every butterfly 

 has the gait best suited to the kind of place that he lives in. Heliconius, 

 one of the very slowest genera on our continent, is particularly at home 

 while flying through the densest copses. It is perfectly natural that 

 such a butterfly as a grapta, matched to the colors of the ground, should 

 hurry, in flying from one safe spot on the ground to another, but the 

 case of Heliconius is very different. He lives in cover, the very kind of 

 cover to which small birds fly from a hawk, and through this he sails 

 and flits in the only conceivable manner, threading its minute alleys 

 with short wing beats, and at times almost seeming to stop and crawl 

 through the narrowest places. This is, at least, true of charitonius, 

 sara and melpomene, in the West Indies and Trinidad, where I have 

 seen them. As is characteristic of all nature, these insects overflow 

 from the situations that most nurture them into less favorable places. 



Yet it is almost a sufficient answer to the natural question why they 

 are not there preyed upon, to point out afresh that on the American 

 continent, at least, no kind of butterfly at all appears often to be at- 

 tacked on the wing. In Trinidad, one of the keenest of that remark- 



