December 1998 
II 
by reverberations It gave me a fed of the ancient times, 
an experience 1 have only had at the Gede Ruins at the 
Kenyan coast. 
Food 
1 always looked forward to all the mouth-watering meals 
prepared in the traditional Hungarian style. Breakfasts 
were particularly special, and one could not resist the 
delicious leg size dried sausages or the “mountain 
bread", not forgetting the varied blends of tea- 
peppermint tea was my favourite! I also had a chance to 
taste Hungarian pizza 1 enjoyed taking Hungarian 
traditional dishes, prepared and served traditionally by 
the Hungarians. I am forever grateful that food and 
drinks were there in plenty for without any formal 
contract, it was shared between the bloodthirsty 
mosquitoes and me. Will, if I am to be remembered 
for nothing else. 1 am convinced a number of families 
of these ruthless bloodsuckers have a record of my 
contribution. 
Team Members 
Apart from enriching my birds’ life list, that of foreign 
friends made a sizeable stride. It was great exchanging 
ideas on environmental, social and political issues. I 
especially loved sharing about Kenya, teaching Swahili, 
but more importantly listening to stories and life 
experiences from other countries I’m looking forward 
to starting information exchange with some of the 
volunteers from Germany, United Kingdom and 
Hungary. 
EVALUATION 
Overall my trip to Hungary was a great experience. 
However. I have a few tilings that I would wish to point 
out; 
• 1 would have appreciated an introductory theory 
session on how different things are done pertaining 
to bird processing 
• Whereas 1 really appreciated being in Hungary, 1 
would suggest that this programme be carried out 
in an English speaking country, if it is supposed to 
be a learning experience for volunteers. Everything 
including taking measurements, biometrics, data 
entry, even the data entry books, are printed in 
Hungarian and attempts to have them explain some 
things was foiled by the language barrier. This 
would be fine if the volunteers are already ringers 
and took such a fellowship to have a feel of what 
goes on in other ringing stations, but not for 
freshmen. 
• l would have really appreciated at least a day out to 
visit Budapest and have a feel of what public 
transport and life in a European city is like. 
Long Live Ocsa I Long Live Hungary ! 
Long Live Earthwateh ! 
Mwangi Solomon Ngari, Sites Conservation Officer 
with the Important Bird Areas Programme, 
Nature Kenya, (The BirdLife partner for Kenya) PO 
Box 44486, Nairobi 
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 
A CROSS-SPECIES MATING BETWEEN THE 
DIADEM BUTTERFLY AND TRIMEN’S FALSE 
ACRAEA: RAPE OR FEMALE CHOICE? 
Every now and then an unusual observation gets you 
thinking about a biological conundrum. I was recently 
startled to see a male diadem butterfly (Hvpoli minis 
misippus) mating with a female Tri men’s false Acraca 
(Pseudacraea boisduvali) in one of the Kipcpco Project 
flight cages. My surprise quickly gave way to a revived 
curiosity about an outstanding question regarding 
Balcsian mimics. Batcsian mimics arc edible but have 
evolved a superficial resemblance to poisonous species 
This resemblance fools predators who mistake the 
mimics for their poisonous models and leave them alone. 
The theory has been tested in the field and in the 
laboratory and it has been shown that it works. 
This much is clear, but there are several features of 
Batcsian mimicry which are not yet fully understood 
Among these is the fact that mimicry is often sex-limited 
to females In other words, females have mimetic 
patterns but males don’t The diadem butterfly is a good 
example of a fcmalc-liniilcd Batcsian mimic. The males 
arc black and white and arc non-mimelic while the 
variably patterned, mostly orange females resemble 
different forms of the posionous African queen butterfly, 
Danaus chrysippns. This is puzzling; the males need to 
survive just as much as females, so why shouldn't they 
also resemble the African Queen? There have been 
several general attempts to answer this question. The 
more plausible explanations argue that its easier for a 
female than for a male to evolve a new colour pattern. 
Why should this be so? One possibility is (bat 
females are lightly programmed to recognise their mates 
by a particular colour pattern, which will normally be 
that typical for the species. Since females usually mate 
only once or twice, they can’t afford to make a mistake 
and have to be choosy. They arc thus likely to reject 
