This Peculiarity Of Colouring Led Me To Discover That This Extraordinary Female Closely Resembles (When Flying) Another Butterfly Of The Same Genus But Of A Different Group (Papilio CoöN), And That We Have Here A Case Of Mimicry Similar To Those So Well Illustrated And Explained By Mr. Bates.[ Trans.

Linn. Soc.

Vol. xviii. p. 495; "Naturalist on the Amazons," vol. i. p. 290.]

That the resemblance is not accidental is sufficiently proved by the fact, that in the North of India, where Papilio coön is replaced by all allied forms, (Papilio Doubledayi) having red spots in place of yellow, a closely-allied species or variety of Papilio memnon (P. androgens) has the tailed female also red spotted. The use and reason of this resemblance appears to be that the butterflies imitated belong to a section of the genus Papilio which from some cause or other are not attacked by birds, and by so closely resembling these in form and colour the female of Memnon and its ally, also escape persecution. Two other species of this same section (Papilio antiphus and Papilio polyphontes) are so closely imitated by two female forms of Papilio tbeseus (which comes in the same section with Memnon), that they completely deceived the Dutch entomologist De Haan, and he accordingly classed them as the same species!

But the most curious fact connected with these distinct forms is that they are both the offspring of either form. A single brood of larva were bred in Java by a Dutch entomologist, and produced males as well as tailed and tailless females, and there is every reason to believe that this is always the case, and that forms intermediate in character never occur.

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