When the
mockers and the mocked are caught and compared, they are found to be very
different in essential structure, and to belong not only to distinct
genera, but often to distinct families. Had this mimicry occurred in only
one or two instances, it might have been passed over as a strange
coincidence. But, if we proceed from a district where one Leptalis
imitates an Ithomia, another mocking and mocked species, belonging to the
same two genera, equally close in their resemblance, may be found.
Altogether no less than ten genera are enumerated, which include species
that imitate other butterflies. The mockers and mocked always inhabit the
same region; we never find an imitator living remote from the form which it
imitates. The mockers are almost invariably rare insects; the mocked in
almost every case abounds in swarms. In the same district in which a
species of Leptalis closely imitates an Ithomia, there are sometimes other
Lepidoptera mimicking the same Ithomia: so that in the same place, species
of three genera of butterflies and even a moth are found all closely
resembling a butterfly belonging to a fourth genus. It deserves especial
notice that many of the mimicking forms of the Leptalis, as well as of the
mimicked forms, can be shown by a graduated series to be merely varieties
of the same species; while others are undoubtedly distinct species. But
why, it may be asked, are certain forms treated as the mimicked and others
as the mimickers? Mr.
Pages:
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695