94 



AFRICAN MIMETIC BUTTERFLIES 



thus records in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (vol. ii, p. 113) : ' Mr. Rogers has 

 sent me a second collection of butterflies from Fernando Po, containing Papilio merope 

 and P. hippocoon taken by him in copulation, another illustration of the saying that " truth 

 is stranger than fiction ". I find it very difficult (even with this evidence) to believe that 

 a butterfly, which, when a resident in Madagascar, has a female the image of itself, should, 

 in West Africa, have one without any resemblance to it at all.' 



The first proof of the specific identity of cenea, hippocoon, trophonius, and the black and 

 white male, was obtained by Mr. Mansel Weale, who found a number of the larvae near King 

 William's Town. From these larvae were bred seven males, four females of the cenea form, 

 one of the trophonius, and one of the hippocoon. These results were communicated to the 

 Entomological Society in 1874, and we can imagine with what triumphant satisfaction the 

 announcement must have been received by the naturaUst whose intelHgent anticipation 

 had been received with such scepticism. In recent years further experiments have confirmed 

 these results. In September, 1902, Mr. G. F. Leigh, of Durban, succeeded in taking a pair 

 of cenea, the female being of the white-spotted cenea form.^ From this female ninety eggs 

 were obtained, of which only three proved sterile. After going through various transforma- 

 tions which will be described later, and a few larvae being preserved, ultimately fifty-six 

 pupae were obtained, eleven of which failed to emerge successfully. Forty-five specimens 

 were thus obtained, of which twenty-seven were females and eighteen males. The males 

 were of the normal form, whilst three of the females were of the southern hippocoon form, 

 and the remainder cenea. Three of the cenea forms had buff spots on the fore- wings corre- 

 sponding to Amauris echeria, whilst the remainder were white-spotted resembling alhi- 

 maculata. From this brood no examples of trophonius were obtained. Many of the specimens 

 were examined by Professor Poulton,^ who found that there was a gradual gradation from 

 the white-spotted to the buff-spotted forms, and also that the black marginal band in the 

 male hind-wing exhibited great variation. In 1903 the same experimenter was fortunate 

 enough to capture a female of the trophonius form, from which seven eggs were obtained, 

 which ultimately produced five butterflies. Of these, three were males and two females, the 

 latter being of the white-spotted cenea form. It is noticeable that the trophonius eggs did 

 not produce any imagines of that form, though the number of ova obtained was too small 

 to draw any definite conclusion therefrom. The next experiments in breeding P. dardanus 

 were carried out in 1904 by the same naturalist, and the results described by Professor 

 Poulton in Trans. Ent. Soc, 1906.^ Eggs were collected from a trophonius female near 

 Durban, and six males and seven females were obtained from the larvae. Of these females 

 six were of the cenea form and one typically trophonius ; the cenea form showed the same 

 variations from white to buff spots as were observed in the former brood. The males had 

 the submarginal band in the hind-wings distinctly less heavily marked. Leigh's further 

 experiments have resulted in three more families of dardanus being bred from ova, 

 one in 1906 and two in 1907. A very complete and interesting discussion on all these 

 families was communicated to the Entomological Society in 1908 by Professor Poulton.* 

 In the 1906 family there were fourteen males, and the same number of females, of which 

 latter eight were of the cenea form, three hippocoon, and three trophonius, the female parent 

 being of the hippocoon variety. The first of the 1907 families arose from ova of the cenea 



^ For a full account of these breeding experiments ' Poulton, Mimetic Forms of P. dardanus {merope), 



see Synepigonic series of Papilio cenea, Trans. Ent. Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 281, 1906. 



Soc, p. 667, 1904, G. F. Leigh. ■* Poulton, Heredity in Six Families of P. dar- 



2 1. c, p. 680. danus, Trans. Ent. Soc, p. 427, 1908. 



