On the same West African coast occurs the strange greyish-black _Acræa egina_, with brick-red spots and bands, and coal-black dots (Fig. 18, _A_). This immune species is deceptively mimicked in its native country by two other butterflies--a Nymphalid, _Pseudacræa boisduvalii_ (Fig. 18, _C_), and by a female _Papilio_ (_P. ridleyanus_) (Fig. 18, _B_), by the latter not so exactly as by the former, but quite sufficiently to be confused with its model in flight.
It would have been less easy to predict with certainty from the theory that, conversely, the different species of a genus which stood in need of protection would be able to mimic quite different immune models, for who would have ventured to prophesy how far the capacity of a species for variation might go, and how many different kinds of coloration it was able to assume? But the facts teach us that there is a wide range of possibility in this respect.
Most interesting in this respect is, perhaps, the Asiatic-African genus _Elymnias_, a Satyrid whose numerous (over thirty) species all seem to be in need of protection, for many of them mimic immune butterflies, while the rest are inconspicuous and are provided with protective colouring on the under surface. On Plates II and III some of the former are depicted beside their models. The single African species (_Elymnias phegea_) (Pl. II, Fig. 20) mimics, as has been already mentioned, the prevalent _Acræa gea_ (Pl. II, Fig. 21). Many of the Asiatic Elymniidæ are mimics of the immune Euplœæ, especially the dark-brown species with steel-blue shimmer, such as _E. patna_ in India, _E. beza_ in Borneo, and _E. penanga_ in Borneo. In Amboina there flies an _E. vitellia_, the female of which mimics accurately the plain, light-brown, inconspicuous _Euplœa climena_ which occurs there. The male of _Elymnias leucocyma_ (Pl. III, Fig. 26) resembles the brown and blue shimmering _Euplœa binotata_ (Pl. III, Fig. 25), while the female mimics the dusky, radially-striped female of _Euplœa midamus_ (Pl. III, Figs. 27 and 28): the male of _Elymnias cassiphone_ resembles the blackish-brown and deep-blue iridescent _Euplœa claudia_, while the female is like the female of _Euplœa midamus_. A number of species of _Elymnias_ copy Danaids: thus both sexes of _E. lais_ are like _Danais vulgaris_ (Pl. III, Figs. 29 and 30), and _E. ceryx_ and _E. timandra_ are like another similar Danaid, _D. tytia_. The female only of _E. undularis_ of Ceylon mimics the brown-yellow _D. genutia_ (Pl. II, Fig. 22) in general appearance, though not minutely, while the male (Pl. II, Fig. 24) seems to attempt an imitation of the blue Euplœæ. A rare form, not often represented in collections, _Elymnias künstleri_, bears a striking resemblance to the Danaid, _Ideopsis daos_ Boisd., with its white wings spotted with black, while three species mimic the probably immune Pierid genus _Delias_, especially on the under surface, which is decorated with yellow and red. Perhaps the one which has diverged farthest from the original type is _Elymnias agondas_ Boisd. (Pl. II, Fig. 32) of the Papua region and the island of Waigeu, for it bears two large blue eye-spots on the posterior wings, and thus, especially in the case of the almost white female, closely resembles _Tenaris bioculatus_ (Pl. III, Fig. 31). There are thus seven or eight types of marking and colouring differing from one another, and belonging to six different genera and a much greater number of species, which are mimicked by this one genus _Elymnias_.