The Distastefulness of Anosia plexippus

Abstract

REFERRING to the interesting note on “The Distastefulness of Anosia plexippus” in NATURE of October 12, I should like to suggest that the experiment, though interesting in itself, does not materially strengthen the case for the usefulness of mimicry. To make a good case for mimicry in the sense in which that term is ordinarily used, the mimic Basilarchia archippus should be tested and found palatable. Further, if mimicry means anything at all with reference to these two species, North American birds should eat some butterflies but not molest Basilarchia archippus. So far as observations have been reported, American birds eat butterflies very rarely, and there is no evidence, so far as I know, either from direct observation or from the thousands of stomach-content examinations made by the United States Department of Agriculture, that its non-mimetic relatives are eaten more often than Basilarchia archippus.