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

100 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.genus Papilio which from some cause or other are not attackedby birds, and by so closely resembling these in form and colourthe female of Memnon and its ally also escape persecution.Two other species of this same section (Papilio antiphus andPapilio polyphontes) are so closely imitated by two femaleforms of Papilio theseus (which comes in the same section withMemnon), that they completely deceived the Dutch entomologistDe Haan, and he accordingly classed them as the same species !But the most curious fact connected with these distinct formsis, that they are both the otfsjDring of either form. A singlebrood of larvse wei-e bred in Java by a Dutch entomologist, andproduced males as well as tailed and tailless females, and thereis every reason to believe that this is always the case, and thatforms intermediate in character never occur. To illustrate thesephenomena, let us suppose a roaming Englislmian in some remoteisland to have two wives—one a black-haired, red-skinned Indian,the other a woolly-headed, sooty-skinned negress ; and that insteadof the children being mulattoes of brown or dusky tints,mingling the characteristics of each parent in varying degrees,all the boys should be as fair-skinned and blue-eyed as theirfather, while the gii'ls should altogether resemble their mothers.This would be thought strange enough, but the case of thesebutterflies is yet more extraordinary, for each mother is capablenot only of producing male offspring like the father, and femalelike herself, but also other females like her fellow wife, andaltogether differing from herself !The other species to which I have to direct attention is theKallima paralekta, a butterfly of the same family group as ourPurple Emperor, and of about the same size or larger. Its uppersurface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash colour, andacross the fore wings there is a broad bar of deep orange, sothat when on the w4ng it is very conspicuous. This species wasnot uncommon in dry woods and thickets, and I often endeavouredto capture it without success, for after flying a shortdistance it would enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, andhowever carefully I crept up to the spot I could never discoverit till it would suddenly start out again and then disappear in asimilar place. At length I was fortunate enough to see the exactspot where the butterfly settled, and though I lost sight of it forsome time, I at length discovered that it was close before myeyes, but that in its position of repose it so closely resembled adead leaf attached to a twig as almost certainly to deceive theeye even when gazing full upon it. I captured several specimenson the wing, and was able fully to understand the way in whichthis wonderful resemblance is produced.The end of the upper wings terminates in a fine point, just asthe leaves of many tropical shrubs and trees are pointed, whilethe lower wings are somewhat more obtuse, and are lengthenedout into a short thick tail. Between these two points there i-unsa dark curved line exactly representing the midrib of a leaf, and