The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

VIII.] SUMATRA. 99applies to the males ; but the females are very different, andvary so mucli that they were once suj^posed to form severaldistinct species. They may Ije divided into two groups—thosewhich resemble the male in shape, and those which differ entirelyfrom him in the outline of the Avings. The first vary much incolour, being often nearly white with dusky yellow and redmarkings, but such differences often occur in butterflies. Tliesecond group are much more extraordinary, and would never besupposed to he the same insect, since the hind wings are lengthenedout into large spoon-shaped tails, no rudiment of which isever to be perceived in the males or in the ordinaiy form offemales. These tailed females are never of the dark and blueglossedtints whicli pi-evail in the male and often occur in thePAPILIO COON.females of the same form, but are invariably ornamented withstripes and patches of wliite or butt", occupying the larger partof the surface of the hind wings. This peculiarity of colouringled me to discover that this extraordinary female closely resembles(when flying) another butterfly of the same genus butof a different group (Papilio coon) ; and that we have here acase of mimicry similar to those so well illustrated and explainedby Mr. Bates.' That the resemblance is not accidental issufficiently proved by the fact, that in the North of India, wherePapilio coon is replaced by an allied form (Papilio Doubledayi)having red spots in place of yellow, a closely-allied species orvariety of Papilio memnon (P. androgeus), has the tailed femalealso red spotted. The use and reason of this resemblance appearsto be, that the butterflies imitated belong to a section of the^ Trans. Linu. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 495 ; Naturalist on the Amazons, vol. i. p. 290.H 2