president’s address. 
J 59 
attack and devour a small white Butterfly, and the experience 
of other entomologists who have collected in temperate 
climates has been the same ; but in the tropics, Monkeys, 
Birds, and Lizards have all been observed to feed largely on 
Butterflies. On the other hand, I am not aware that any 
of our British Butterflies are specially protected, or that 
there are any cases of mimicry among them. 
The reason usually given for mimicry being confined to 
the female, as in the case of H. misippus, is that the female 
requires to live longer than the male, in order that she may 
be able to deposit her eggs and so provide for the continuance 
of the species ; and certainly H. misippus must be regarded 
as a very successful combatant in the struggle for life, as it 
is a very abundant species, and also a verv widely spread 
one. It is a very curious fact, and one of recent discovery, 
that the male of this species is also mimicked. Two Butter- 
flies have recently been discovered in Northern China, in 
which the males present the colour and pattern of the wings 
of the male of H. misippus. This is rather disconcerting to 
our theories, and should make us agree with Hamlet that 
“There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt 
of in your philosophy.” Another reason for the female 
being the mimicking sex while the male remains constant, 
seems to have been first suggested by Darwin, and it is this, 
viz., that the female naturally varies more than the male, 
and these variations are in the direction of the colour assumed 
by the mimic. I have here some specimens which seem to 
me to favour this explanation. Of course, all living things, 
whether plants or animals, tend to vary immensely, and it 
is on this fact that the Darwinian theory of “ The Origin 
of Species by Natural Selection ” is built, but some species 
tend to vary more than others, and in some cases they vary 
in a special direction. There is a Hypolimnas closely allied to 
H . misippus, viz., H . bolina. The male is a dark velvety 
black insect, with bluish-white spots closely resembling 
VOL. ix. 
M 
