nother genus of Nymphalidae), three of Melanitis (Eurytelidae), and
two of Papilio, resemble with equal accuracy some species of
Acraea.[102] He has also independently observed the main facts on which
the explanation of the phenomenon rests,--the unpleasant odour of the
Danais and Acraea, extending to their larvae and pupae; their great
abundance, slow flight, and disregard of concealment; and he states that
while lizards, mantidae, and dragonflies all hunt butterflies, and the
rejected wings are to be found abundantly at some of their
feeding-places, those of the two genera Danais and Acraea were never
among them.

The two groups of the great genus Papilio (the true swallow-tailed
butterflies) which have been already referred to as having the special
characteristics of uneatable insects, have also their imitators in other
groups; and thus, the belief in their inedibility--derived mainly from
their style of warning coloration and their peculiar habits--is
confirmed. In South America, several species of the "Aeneas" group of
these butterflies are mimicked by Pieridae and by day-flying moths of
the genera Castnia and Pericopis. In the East, Papilio hector, P.
diphilus, and P. liris, all belonging to the inedible group, are
mimicked by the females of other species of Papilio belonging to very
distinct groups; while in Northern India and China, many fine day-flying
moths (Epicopeia) have acquired the strange forms and peculiar colours
of some of the large inedible Papilios of the same regions.

In North America, the large and handsome Danais archippus, with rich
reddish-brown wings, is very common; and it is closely imitated by
Limenitis misippus, a butterfly allied to our "white admiral," but which
has acquired a colour quite distinct from that of the great bulk of its
allies. In the same country there is a still more interesting case. The
beautiful dark bronzy green butterfly, Papilio philenor, is inedible
both in larva and perfect insect, and it is mimicked by the equally dark
Limenitis ursula. There is also in the Southern and Western States a
dark female form of the yellow Papilio turnus, which in all probability
obtains protection from its general resemblance to P. philenor. Mr. W.H.
Edwards has found, by extensive experiment, that both the dark and
yellow females produce their own kinds, with very few exceptions; and he
thinks that the dark form has the advantage in the more open regions and
in the prairies, where i