PDF - Wallace Online

NATURAL SELECTIONpublished in the Transactions of the Linncean Society for 1868,gives a list of no less than sixteen species and varieties ofDiadema and its allies, and ten of Papilio, which in theircolour and markings are perfect mimics of species or varietiesof Danais or Acrsea which inhabit the same districts.Passing on to India, we have Danais tytia, a butterflywith semi-transparent bluish wings and a border of richreddish brown. This remarkable style of colouring is exactlyreproduced in Papilio agestor and in Diadema nama, and allthree insects not unfrequently come together in collectionsmade at Darjeeling. In the Philippine Islands the large andcurious Idea leuconoe, with its semi-transparent white wings,veined and spotted with black, is copied by the rare Papilioidseoides from the same islands.In the Malay archipelago the very common and beautifulEuplsea midamus is so exactly mimicked by two rare Papilios(P. paradoxa and P. senigma) that I generally caught themunder the impression that they were the more commonspecies and the; equally common and even more beautifulEuplsea rhadamanthus, with its pure white bands and spotson a ground of glossy blue and black, is reproduced in thePapilio caunus. Here also there are species of Diademaimitating the same group in two or three instances ;but weshall have to adduce these further on in connection withanother branch of the subject.It has been already mentioned that in South Americathere is a group of Papilios which have all the characteristicsof a protected race, and whose peculiar colours and markingsare imitated by other butterflies not so protected. There isjust such a group also in the East, having very similarcolours and the same habits, and these also are mimicked byother species in the same genus not closely allied to them,and also by a few of other families. Papilio hector, acommon Indian butterfly of a rich black colour spotted withcrimson, is so closely copied by Papilio romulus that thelatter insect has been thought to be its female. A closeexamination shows, however, that it is essentially different,and belongs to another section of the genus. Papilioantiphus and P. diphilus, black swallow-tailed butterflies withcream-coloured spots, are so well imitated by varieties of P.