Reginald Crundall Punnett

Name: Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV
Author: Reginald Crundall Punnett

Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

Summary

“Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV”, published in 1915, is a work by Reginald Crundall Punnett. It explores elements such as scales, Ithomiines and mimics.

Quotes from Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (Reginald Crundall Punnett)

Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ It is somewhat remarkable that no Satyrine exhibits mimicry in S. America, in spite of the fact that transparency of the wings, as in so many of the butterflies of this region, is quite common in the group. On the other hand the relatively large number of more or less mimetic Pierines is a striking feature of S. America. For the most part they belong to the genera Dismorphia and Perrhybris, and resemble the yellow, black, and brown Heliconines and Ithomiines, though some of the former genus are mimics of the small transparent Ithomiines. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ Under such conditions it might well be supposed that instances of close resemblance between different species would be numerous, and this in effect is what we find.
As in Asia with its Euploeines and Danaines, and in Africa with its Danaines and Acraeines, so in S. America are the fashions set by two dominant groups of models. These are the Heliconinae and the Ithomiinae, both peculiar to this region and both characterised, like the Old-world Danaids, by slow flight and great tenacity of life. Both live on poisonous plants—the Heliconines on Passifloras and the Ithomiines on Solanaceae. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ There is least change in Ituna where the scales are not much reduced in size and where a fair proportion are still pigmented. There is probably most in an Ithomiine such as Thyridia, where the scales are not only small and entirely without pigment, but also are for the most part neckless so that they stand out at right angles to the wing. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ The third species, P. asterius, has a more southerly distribution. Its female is darker and nearer to philenor than the male. It must, however, be admitted that none of the three species bears a very close resemblance to philenor. It is suggested that this is because P. philenor is a tropical form which has only recently invaded N. America. The crossing of philenor has, as it were, induced the three mimicking Papilios to turn dark, but the model has not been long enough in contact with them for the likeness to become a close one. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ Now it is a simple scheme of black with an oblique scarlet band upon the fore wings—now an arrangement with alternating stripes of bright brown and black relieved with patches of clear yellow—now again a scheme of pure transparency and black. Gay and pleasing as are the designs turned out the palette is a small one and invention is circumscribed. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ These groups of different species, some belonging to palatable and some to unpalatable groups, all exhibiting a close resemblance in colour and pattern, are far more strikingly developed in S. America than in either Asia or Africa, and it is not uncommon for eight or ten species to enter into such an association. ”

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Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ The general ground colour is a deep black-brown (Pl. XI, figs. 8 and 9) , the hind wings are almost invariably marked with red near the centre or towards the outer margin, and the fore wing may or may not bear a patch which is generally whitish in the female, though often of a brilliant blue or green in the male. This simple colour scheme with variations runs throughout about three-quarters (some 40 species) of the Poison-eaters. The same general colour scheme is also found in about two dozen species of the unprotected Swallow-tails. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Reginald Crundall Punnett, Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (1915)

“ Sombre coloured species are relatively scarcer than in the Oriental and African regions. In the second place when looking over collections from this part of the world one cannot help being struck by the frequency with which similar colour combinations occur over and over again in different as well as in the same groups. ”

Reginald Crundall Punnett

Summary

Quotes from Mimicry in Butterflies — Chapter IV (Reginald Crundall Punnett)

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