explained by Mr. Bates.1 That the resemblance is not
accidental is sufficiently proved by the fact, that in the
North of India, where Papilio coon 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 larvae 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
1 Trans. Linn. Son. voL xviii. p. 495 ; “ Naturalist on the Amazons,”
vol. i. p. 290.
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 fore wings 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 till
it would suddenly start out again and then disappear in a
similar place. At length I was fortunate enough to see