Note 13 — Chapter III

Tropical Africa is probably more wealthy in mimetic analogies than Indo-Malaya, and the African cases have recently been gathered together by Eltringham in a large and beautifully illustrated memoir[13]. The principal models of the region are furnished by the Danainae and the allied group of the Acraeinae. Of the Danaines one well-known model, Danais chrysippus, is common to Africa and to Indo-Malaya. Common also to the two regions are the mimics, Argynnis hyperbius and Hypolimnas misippus (cf. Pl. IV, figs. 3 and 7). The case of the last named is peculiarly interesting because it presents well-marked varieties which can be paralleled by similar ones in D. chrysippus. In addition to the typical form with the dark tipped fore wing relieved by a white bar there is in each species a form uniformly brown, lacking both the dark tip and the white bar of the fore wing. There is also another form in the two species in which the hind wing is almost white instead of the usual brown shade. In both species, moreover, the white hind wing may be associated either with the uniformly brown fore wing or with the typical form. There is also another common African butterfly, Acraea encedon, in which these different patterns are closely paralleled (cf. Pl. IX). Several other species of butterflies and a few diurnal moths bear a more or less close resemblance to D. chrysippus.