MAYER: COLOR AND COLOR-PATTERNS. 
283 
These species are characterized by their blue iridescence, and the 
narrow yellow or white bands upon the primaries; the hind wings 
are pointed at the outer apex, and the venation approaches the type 
found in Eueides aliphera. H. ricini (Plate 5 , Fig. 66) is a good 
example of a form intermediate in coloration between group 1 and 
the “ Erato group ” (2). 
The type of group 2 is Heliconius erato (Plate 4 , Fig. 60, and 
Plate 5 , Figs. 67 and 68). This group is closely allied to group 1 in 
its characteristics. A good connecting link between groups 1 and 3, 
the “Melpomene group,” is H. phyllis (Fig. 65). 
The third, or “ Melpomene group,” is represented by H. mel- 
pomene, IT. callicopis, H. cybele, H. thelxiope, and II. vesta (Plate 6, 
Figs. 70-74, and Plate 4 , Fig. 59). II. vulcanus, H. venus, H. 
chestertonii, H. burneyi, and H. pachinus are also examples of this 
group. 
(2j Mimicry between the Genus Heliconius and the Danaoid 
Group. To Schatz’s group 4, the “ Sylvanus group,” belong all those 
species of Heliconius which have departed widely from the colora¬ 
tion pattern of the other three groups, and have come to resemble 
various species of the genera Melinaea, Mechanics, and Tithorea of 
the Danaoid ITeliconidae. TI. eucoma, H. eucrate, H. dryalus, and H. 
sylvana (Plate 8 , Figs. 88, 89, 91, and 95) are good examples of 
group 4. By glancing at the diagrams on Plate 8 it will be seen 
that H. dryalus resembles Melinaea paraiya very closely ; in fact, the 
likeness is so close that it is almost certain that no eye could distin¬ 
guish between the two insects when they are upon the wing. Another 
startling resemblance is that between IT. eucrate and Melinaea tliera 
(Plate 8 , Figs. 91 and 92) ; moreover, there is but little difference 
between the color-patterns of II. eucrate, Eueides dianasa, and 
Mechanitis polymnia (Figs. 91, 93, and 94). H. sylvana and 
Melinaea egina (Figs. 95 and 96) are also said to mimic each other. 
The resemblance certainly appears very close at a casual glance, yet 
when the colors are plotted, as in Figs. 95 and 96, the differences be¬ 
come quite apparent. IT. claudia (Plate 5 , Fig. 69) is a good con¬ 
necting link between the Sylvanus group and the Melpomene group. 
In both the Melpomene and Sylvanus groups the venation has departed 
from the Eueides aliphera type, and the contour of the hind wings is 
much more rounded and elliptical than is the case in the Antioclius 
and Erato groups. (Compare Figs. 50 and 60 with Figs. 58 and 59, 
Plate 4 .) There are rather less than twenty species which certainly 
