MIMETIC ASSOCIATIONS 



51 



THE M. FORMOSA GROUP. 

 MELINDA FORMOSA.! 



Godman, Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 183, pi. 19, i. i {1880). 



Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 33 (1898). 



Neave, Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 215, pi. x, ff. i, la (1906). 



Plate IV, Figs, i, 2. 



MELINDA MERCEDONIA. 



Karsch, Ent. Nachr., xx, p. 225 (1894). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 33, f. 3 (1898). 

 Neave, Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 215, pi. xii, f. 4 (1906). 



Plate IV, Fig. 3. 



These two Danaine butterflies are very distinct in appearance from any of the other 

 members of their race in the African region. Neave has expressed the opinion that they are 

 probably modifications from Tirumala petiverana, that being the ancestral form, though 

 Marshall has pointed out (Trans. Ent. Soc, 1908, p. 125), that though T. petiverana has so 

 wide a distribution in Africa it has not produced any really close mimics, certainly none that 

 can be compared with P. rex and P. mimeticus, which are such accurate mimics of M . formosa 

 and M. mercedonia. The two latter butterflies were at one time considered great rarities, 

 but though extremely local they are now known, in the case of M. mercedonia at least, to be 

 very plentiful in their respective localities. As will be seen from the figures, the female 

 M. formosa differs from the male in the more rounded appearance of tjie wings and some- 

 what larger extent of the basal dark ochreous colour in the fore-wings. M. mercedonia 

 is now received in considerable numbers from the neighbourhood of the north-west shore 

 of Lake Victoria Nyanza. In a large collection I received from Entebbe the species was 

 exceedingly common. The female is so far much rarer than the male, though it has lately 

 been taken more frequently. It differs only very slightly, and principally in the rather paler 

 ground-colour of the hind- wings. 



PAPILIO REX. 



Oberthur, An. E. Fr. (6) vi. Bull., p. 115 (1886). 

 — Etud, d'Ent., xii, p. 2, pi. i, f. 2 (1888). 

 Aurivillius, Rhop. Aeth., p. 461 (1898). 



Plate IV, Fig. 5, 6. 



PAPILIO MIMETICUS. 



Rothschild, Entomologist, xxx, p. 165 (1897). 

 Novit. Zool., iv, p. 315, pi. 4. f. 2 (1897). 



Plate IV, Fig. 4. 



Intermediate variety. 



Neave, Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 216, pi. xii, ff. i, 2 (1906). 



Plate IV, Fig. 7. 



It is only in recent years that we have had sufficient material to study these remarkable 

 butterflies and to appreciate the relations existing between them. P. rex is still a rare insect, 

 whilst P. mimeticus is even less frequently met with. The two forms have been regarded 

 as separate species, but, in view of the distinctly intermediate forms described by Neave, 



1 Professor Aurivillius, in his catalogue of the 

 African Rhopalocera, includes Moore's subgenera 

 Tirumala and Melinda in the genus Danaida, Latreille. 

 The present work is not a systematic treatise and there- 



fore I have in this case adopted the nomenclature 

 which is in common use at the time of writing, and 

 which is used for the most part by the writers to whose 

 Avorks references are given. 



