160 president’s address. 
the male of H. misippus. It is found all over India and 
through the Malay Islands to Australia. Now in India 
the female has assumed a definite form, which I think may 
he regarded as a mimic of Euplcea core, a very common 
protected insect, though I must admit that the imitation 
is not very close ; but when we get to some of the Pacific 
Islands, where Euplcea core is not found, the variation to be 
observed in the females of H. bolina is most extraordinary. 
It would seem that there is no protected species to be 
mimicked in these islands, consequently Nature runs riot 
and indulges her tendency to vary freely, this tendency not 
being kept in order, so to speak, by any advantage which 
would accrue to the insect from its varying in any particular 
direction, but it is well to observe that the line followed 
in these variations is the production to a greater or less 
extent of a tawny colour, and this is exactly the direction 
which the variation has taken in the allied H. misippus. 
But here the whole insect has become tawny, and the pattern 
is fixed because it was an advantage to it to resemble the 
protected Danais chrysippus. I think the examination of 
these two species of Hypolimnas throws an interesting light 
on the way in which we may conceive that during the lapse 
of ages this wonderful resemblance of the female of H. misippus 
to Danais chrysippus has been effected. 
I should like now to direct your attention to the very 
interesting form of mimicry presented by an African Papilio, 
now known as P. dardanus. This Butterfly occurs all over 
Africa from the highlands of Abyssinia down to the Cape of 
Good Hope, and also in the Islands of Madagascar and 
Great Commoro. The males differ but little from each 
other over all this extensive range, though five or six local 
races may be distinguished. The females in the case of the 
races inhabiting Abyssinia, Madagascar and Great Commoro, 
differ but little from the males ; but in all other parts of 
Africa they differ entirely from the males. The males are 
