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PDF - Wallace Online

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in PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS 63theseus, that several writers have classed them as the samespecies. Papilio liris, found only in the island of Timor, isaccompanied there by P. aenomaus, the female of which soexactly resembles it that they can hardly be separated in thecabinet, and on the wing are quite undistinguishable. Butone of the most curious cases is the fine yellow -spottedPapilio coon, which isunmistakably imitated by the femaletailed form of Papilio memnon. These are both fromSumatra ;but in North India P. coon is replaced by anotherspecies, which has been named P. doubledayi, having redspots instead of yellow ;and in the same district the correspondingfemale tailed form of Papilio androgeus, sometimesconsidered a variety of P. memnon, is similarly red-spotted.Mr. Westwood has described some curious day-flying moths(Epicopeia) from North India, which have the form and colourof Papilios of this section, and two of these are very goodimitations of Papilio polydorus and Papilio varuna, also fromNorth India.Almost all these cases of mimicry are from the tropics,where the forms of life are more abundant, and where insectdevelopment especially is of unchecked luxuriance ;but thereare also one or two instances in temperate regions. In NorthAmerica, the large and handsome red and black butterflyDanais Archippusis very common ;and the same country isinhabited by Limenitis Misippus, which closely resembles theDanais, while it differs entirely from every species of its owngenus.The only case of probable mimicry in our own countryis that of the common white moth (Spilosoma menthastri),referred to at p. 56 as being rejected by young turkeysamong hundreds of other moths on which they greedilyfed. Each bird in succession took hold of this moth andthrew it down again, as if too nasty to eat. Mr. JennerWeir also found that this moth was refused by the Bullfinch,Chaffinch, Yellow Hammer, and Red Bunting, but eaten afterthe Robin. We may therefore fairly con-much hesitation byclude that this species would be disagreeable to many otherbirds, and would thus have an immunity from attack, whichmay be the cause of its great abundance and of its conspicuouswhite colour. Now it is a curious thing that there is

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