RENNELL - AN OUT OF THE WAY CORAL ISLAND 223 



species, being more or less undisturbed by new invasions of the same 

 original species. 



Before our return to Copenhagen, I sent our collection of butterflies of 

 the genus Euploea on request to a British specialist who has been study- 

 ing the occurrence of this genus in the Pacific for many years. His exami- 

 nation of the three Rennell species of the genus has shown that they con- 

 stitute new forms unknown in the Solomons. On the oiher hand, they are 

 closely related to species in New Guinea and undoubtedly originate from 

 them. This suggests that an invasion may have taken place from that 

 large island by way of the Louisiade Islands. The fact that a species of 

 Euploea very common on the Solomon Islands was not contained in our 

 large collection of butterflies suggests also that there is no connection — • 

 so far as these butterflies are concerned — between Rennell Island and 

 the relatively near Solomon Islands. 



This is just a little of what may be deduced from the results of the 

 Whitney Expedition and our own collections of birds and certain butter- 

 flies. It will be fascinating to see how far a study of the other groups of 

 the island's fauna will confirm or disprove the theories advanced, and 

 how many other interesting problems will be elucidated. 



The Rennell collections, which comprise many thousands of animals 

 belonging to many hundreds of species, are being studied by specialists in 

 Denmark, England, and elsewhere. In due course the results of this and 

 the British Museum expedition will be published jointly under the title 

 The Natural History of Rennell Island, British Solomon Islands. 



