222 CLASSIFICATION. [Chap, XIV. 



tion to similar habits of life, but has been gained for 

 the sake of protection. I allude to the wonderful man- 

 ner in which certain butterflies imitate, as first de- 

 scribed by Mr. Bates, other and quite distinct species. 

 This excellent observer has shown that in some districts 

 of S. America, where, for instance, an Ithomia abounds 

 in gaudy swarms, another butterfly, namely, a Leptalis, 

 is often found mingled in the same flock; and the latter 

 so closely resembles the Ithomia in every shade and 

 stripe of colour and even in the shape of its wings, that 

 Mr. Bates, with his eyes sharpened by collecting during 

 eleven years, was, though always on his guard, continu- 

 ally deceived. When the mockers and the mocked are 

 caught and compared, they are found to be very differ- 

 ent in essential structure, and to belong not only to dis- 

 tinct genera, but often to distinct families. Had this 

 mimicry occurred in only one or two instances, it might 

 have been passed over as a strange coincidence. But, if 

 we proceed from a district where one Leptalis imitates 

 an Ithomia, another mocking and mocked species be- 

 longing to the same two genera, equally close in their 

 resemblance, may be found. Altogether no less than 

 ten genera are enumerated, which include species that 

 imitate other butterflies. The mockers and mocked 

 always inhabit the same region; we never find an imi- 

 tator living remote from the form which it imitates. 

 The mockers are almost invariably rare insects; the 

 mocked in almost every case abound in swarms. In 

 the same district in which a species of Leptalis closely 

 imitates an Ithomia, there are sometimes other Lepi- 

 doptera mimicking the same Ithomia: so that in the 

 same place, species of three genera of butterflies and 

 even a moth are found all closely resembling a butter- 



