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 an allied form, (Papilio
Doubledayi) having red spots in place of yellow, a closely-allied species or
variety of Papilio memnon (P. androgeus) 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 theseus (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. To illustrate these phenomena, let us
suppose a roaming Englishman in some remote island to have two wives—one a
black-haired, red-skinned Indian, the other a woolly-headed, sooty-skinned
negress; and that instead of 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 their father, while the girls should
altogether resemble their mothers. This would be thought strange enough, but
the case of these butterflies is yet more extraordinary, for each mother is capable
not only of producing male offspring like the father, and female like herself, but
also other females like her fellow wife, and altogether differing from herself!
The other species to which I have to direct attention is the Kallima paralekta, a
butterfly of the same family group as our Purple Emperor, and of about the same
size or larger. Its upper surface is of a rich purple, variously tinged with ash
colour, and across the forewings there is a broad bar of deep orange, so that
when on the wing it is very conspicuous. This species was not uncommon in dry
woods and thickets, and I often endeavoured to capture it without success, for
after flying a short distance it would enter a bush among dry or dead leaves, and
however carefully I crept up to the spot I could never discover it until it would