Note 4 — Chapter II

Wallace was the next after Bates to interest himself in mimicry and, from his study of the butterflies of the Oriental region[4], shewed that in this part of the world too there existed these remarkable resemblances between species belonging to different families. Perhaps the most important part of Wallace's contribution was the demonstration that in some species not only was it the female alone that "mimicked" but that there might be several different forms of female mimicking different models, and in some cases all unlike the male of their own species. One of the species studied by Wallace, Papilio polytes, is shewn on Plate V. We shall have occasion to refer to this case later on, and it is sufficient here to call attention to the three different forms of female, of which one is like the male while the other two resemble two other species of Papilio, P. hector and P. aristolochiae, which occur in the same localities. Instances where the female alone of some unprotected species mimics a model with obnoxious properties are common in all tropical countries. It has been suggested that this state of things has come about owing to the greater need of protection on the part of the female. Hampered by the disposal of the next generation the less protected female would be at a greater disadvantage as compared with the mimic than would the corresponding male whose obligations to posterity are more rapidly discharged. The view of course makes the assumption that the female transmits her peculiar properties to her daughters but not to her sons.