Note 30 — Chapter VI

There is a serious difficulty in the way of accepting the former of these two views. If our two species, model and would-be mimic are, to begin with, markedly different in pattern, how can we suppose that a slight variation in the direction of the model on the part of the latter would be of any value to it? Take for example a well-known South American case—the resemblance between the yellow, black, and brown Ithomiine, Mechanitis saturata (Pl. X, fig. 7) and the Pierine, Dismorphia praxinoe (Pl. X, fig. 3). The latter belongs to the family of the "whites," and entomologists consider that in all probability its ancestral garb was white with a little black like the closely allied species D. cretacea (Pl. X, fig. 1). Can we suppose that in such a case a small development of brown and black on the wings would be sufficient to recall the Ithomiine and so be of service to the Dismorphia which possessed it? Such a relatively slight approach to the Ithomiine colouring is shewn by the males of certain South American "whites" belonging to the genus Perrhybris (Pl. X, figs. 4 and 5). But the colour is confined to the under-surface and the butterflies possessing it could hardly be confused with a Mechanitis more than their white relations which entirely lack such a patch of colour. If birds regarded white butterflies as edible it is difficult to suppose that they would be checked in their attacks by a trifling patch of colour while the main ground of the insect was still white. But unless they avoided those with the small colour patch there would be an end of natural selection in so far as the patch was concerned, and it would have no opportunity of developing further through the operation of that factor. This is the difficulty of the initial variation which has been clearly recognised by most of the best known supporters of the theory of mimicry. Bates himself offered no suggestion as to the way in which such a form as a Pierid could be conceived of as beginning to resemble an Ithomiine[30]. Wallace supposed that the Ithomiines were to start with not so distinct from many of the edible forms as they are to-day, and that some of the Pierines inhabiting the same district happened to be sufficiently like some of the unpalatable forms to be mistaken for them occasionally[31].