cited above, with the exception of the first, the synaposematic
mimics are vastly in excess of the pseudaposematic; this appears
to be the general rule elsewhere. Frequently the groups are composed
solely of protected species, so far as is at present known; and sometimes
solely, in all probability, of unprotected species with exception
of course of the model. An example of the latter occurs in Singapore
where the vicious red spinning-ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) is
mimicked by the larva of a Noctuid moth and by spiders belonging to
two distinct families, namely, Saltiicus plataleoides (Salticidae) and
Amyciaea forticeps (Thomisidae), there being no reason to suppose
that either the moth larva or the spiders are protected forms. Mimetic
aggregations of species similar to those mentioned above have been
found in other countries; but the instances cited are sufficient to
show how widespread are the influences of mimicry and how profoundly
it has modified the insect fauna of various parts of the world.
Bibliography.—H. W. Bates, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond., 1862); id. The Naturalist on the Amazons (1879); T. Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua (2nd ed. 1888); F. A. Dixey, Rep. Brit. Assoc. (1894) p. 692; id. Tr. Ent. Soc. (London, 1894), p. 249; id., op. cit. (1896); p. 65; id., op. cit. (1897), p. 317; also Proc. Ent. Soc. (Lond. 1897), pp. xx.–xxxii. and xxxiv.–xlvii.; F. Finn, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, lxiv., (1895); lxv. (1896) and lxvi. (1897); E. Haase, Bibliotheca zoologica, (1891–1893, Stuttgart; English trans. by C. M. Child, 1896); G. A. K. Marshall, Trans. Ent. Soc. (London, 1902), pp. 287-584 (annotated by E. B. Poulton); A. T. Masterman, Journ. Linn. Soc., xxx., 239-244 (1908); R. Meldola, Proc. Ent. Soc. London (1877), p. 12; id. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (5)x. (1882); C. Lloyd Morgan, Habit and Instinct (London, 1896); id. Animal Behaviour, pp. 164-165 (London, 1900); F. Müller, Kosmos (May 1879), p. 100; (trans) Proc. Ent. Soc. London (1879), xx.; A. Newton, A Dictionary of Birds, p. 572-575 (London, 1893–1896); E. G. Peckham, Occasional Pap. Nat. Hist. Soc. Wisconsin, i. (1889); R. I. Pocock, Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool., pp. 256-270 (1909); id. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 944-959 (1909); E. B. Poulton, Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1887), 191-274; id. The Colours of Animals, 216-244 (1890); id. “Natural Selection the Cause of Mimetic Resemblance and Common Warning Colour,” Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool., xxvi. (1898); revised and amplified in Essays on Evolution, pp. 220-270 (1908); id. “Mimicry and Natural Selection,” Verhandl. d. V. internat. zool. Congr. Berlin (Jena, 1902); revised in Essays on Evolution, 271-292; id. “The Place of Mimicry in a Scheme of Defensive Coloration,” Essays on Evolution, pp. 293-382 (1908); W. P. Pycraft, The Story of Bird Life, pp. 32-33 (“Mimicry”), (1899); M. Roelofe, C.R. Soc. Ent. Belg. (2), No. 59 (1878); R. Shelford, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1902), ii. part 2, 230-284; R. Trimen, Trans. Linn. Soc., xxvi. p. 497 (1870); A. R. Wallace, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1863), pp. 26-28; id. Trans. Linn. Soc., xxv. pp. 19-22 (1866); id. The Malay Archipelago, ii. (London, 1869); id. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, pp. 103-106 (London, 1875); id. Darwinism, pp. 239-265 (London, 1889); A. Weismann, The Evolution Theory, Eng. trans. (London, 1904). (R. I. P.)
MIMNERMUS of Colophon, Greek elegiac poet, flourished
about 630–600 B.C. His life fell in the troubled time when the
Ionic cities of Asia Minor were struggling to maintain themselves
against the rising power of the Lydian kings. One of the extant
fragments of his poems refers to this struggle, and contrasts
the present effeminacy of his countrymen with the bravery of
those who had once defeated the Lydian king Gyges. But his
most important poems were a set of elegies addressed to a
flute-player named Nanno, collected in two books called after her
name. Mimnermus was the first to make the elegiac verse the
vehicle for love-poetry. He set his own poems to the music of the
flute, and the poet Hipponax says that he used the melancholy
νόμος κραδίης, “the fig-branch strain,” said to be a peculiar
melody, to the accompaniment of which two human purificatory
victims were led out of Athens to be sacrificed during the festival
of Thargelia (Hesychius, s.v.).
Edition of fragments in T. Bergk, Poetae lyrici Graeci; see also G. Vanzolini, Mimnermo (1883), a study of the poet, with notes and a metrical version of the fragments.
MIMOSA (so named from the movements of the leaves in
many species which “mimic” animal sensibility), a genus of the
natural order Leguminosae, which gives its name to the large
sub-order Mimoseae (characterized by usually small regular
flowers with valvate corolla), to which belongs also the nearly
allied genus Acacia. They are distributed throughout almost
all tropical and subtropical regions, the acacias preponderating
in Australia and the true mimosas in America. The former
are of considerable importance as sources of timber, gum and
tannin, but the latter are of much less economic value, though a
few, like the ṭalḥ (M. ferruginea) of Arabia and Central Africa, are
important trees. Most are herbs or undershrubs, but some South
American species are tall woody climbers. They are often prickly.
The roots of some Brazilian species are poisonous, and that
of M. pudica, has irritating properties. The mimosas,
however, owe their interest and their extensive cultivation, partly to
Branch and leaves of the
sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica),
showing the petiole
in its erect state, a, and in
its depressed state, b; also
the leaflets closed (c), and
the leaflets expanded (d);
p, pulvinus.
the beauty of their usually bipinnate
foliage, but still more to the
remarkable development in some
species of the sleep movements
manifested to some extent by
most of the pinnate Leguminosae,
as well as many other (especially
seedling) plants. In the so-called
“sensitive plants” these movements
not only take place under
the influence of light and darkness,
but can be easily excited by
mechanical and other stimuli.
When stimulated—say, at the
axis of one of the secondary
petioles—the leaflets move upwards
on each side until they meet,
the movement being propagated
centripetally. It may then be
communicated to the leaflets of
the other secondary petioles, which close (the petioles, too,
converging), and thence to the main petiole, which sinks rapidly
downwards towards the stem, the bending taking place at the
pulvinus (p in figure) or swollen base of the leafstalk. When shaken
in any way, the leaves close and droop simultaneously, but if
the agitation be continued, they reopen as if they had become accustomed
to the shocks. The common sensitive plant of hot-houses
is M. pudica, a native of tropical America, but now
naturalized in corresponding latitudes of Asia and Africa, but
the hardly distinguishable M. sensitiva and others are also
cultivated. Species of the closely allied genus Schrankia are
known as sensitive-briar in the southern United States.
MIMULUS, in botany, a genus (nat. order Scrophulariaceae), of showy, hardy or half-hardy, herbaceous, rarely shrubby plants, natives of the extra-tropical or mountainous parts of both old and new worlds excepting Europe, but chiefly American. The plants have opposite, undivided leaves, and axillary, generally solitary flowers with a two-lipped, gaping corolla. The herbaceous species thrive best in damp situations; the shrubby species, of which M. glutinosus (formerly called Diplacus) is best known, are adapted for pot culture in the greenhouse. M. luteus, the monkey-flower of gardens, has yellow flowers with two dark marks in the mouth of the corolla; M. Langsdorfii, an American species, has become naturalized by river-sides in many parts of Britain.
M. moschatus, musk, a native of north-western America, with small, nearly regular, yellow flowers, diffuse hairy stem and hairy scented leaves, is a well known and favourite perennial for pot culture and outside borders.
MINA, FRANCISCO ESPOZ Y (1781–1836) Spanish guerrillero leader and general, was born at Ydozin in Navarre on the 17th of June 1781. His father, Juan Esteban Espoz y Mina, and his mother Maria Teresa Hundain y Ardaiz, belonged to the class of yeomen. Mina remained working on the small family inheritance till 1808. When Napoleon endeavoured to seize Spain in that year he enlisted in the regiment of Doyle, and then passed to the guerrilla band commanded by his nephew Xavier Mina. When Xavier was captured by the French on the 21st of March 1810, seven men of the band elected to follow Francisco; and on the 1st of April of the same year the Junta of Aragon gave him the command of the guerrilleros of Navarre. His first act was to arrest and shoot at Estella, one Echevarria, who, under pretence of being a patriotic guerrillero, was in fact a brigand. The national government at Cadiz gave him rank, and by the 7th of September 1812, he had been promoted to be commander-in-chief in Upper Aragon, and on the left bank of the Ebro. In the interval he claimed that he had fought 143 actions big and little, had been repeatedly wounded with bullet, sword and lance, had taken 13 fortified posts, and 14,000 prisoners, and had never been
