( xxxvii ) 



Concerning frohenia he writes: — "Jamais Keptis frohenia 

 n'a ete rencontre a Madagascar — du moins d'apres ce que je 

 connais — mais seulement a I'ile Maurice." 



'' Quant aux Eu'plcca, je crois goudoti speciale a File Bourbon ; 

 euphone, a Maurice ; desjardinsi, a Rodriguez ; et mitra, aux 

 Seychelles. Je posscde les 4 especes. Mais jamais je n'ai recu 

 aucun exemplaire de goudoti, ou eitpJwne a Madagascar." 



I am also informed by Mr. H. Grose-Smith, F.E.S., that 

 he has never received any of the following species from 

 Madagascar : — Neptis dnmetorum, N. frohenia, EuplfHi euplione, 

 and E. goudoti. The erroneous statements as to the occur- 

 rence in Madagascar of certain species of Euplota and NepA'is 

 confined to the outlying islands, are probably due to Mabille ; 

 bvit they are unfortunately repeated, although sometimes 

 queried, by Aurivillivis. 



Each of the four outlying forms of Nepjtis may therefore 

 be looked vipon as the product of its own island, and a very 

 interesting problem of evolutional history is presented to us. 

 One great difficulty in attempting its study was the want of 

 specimens from the Comoros and Mayotte. So far as I am 

 aware the single specimen of mayottensis in the British 

 IVEuseum is the sole example of these two forms, in this country. 

 I therefore wrote to Monsieur Charles Oberthiir, of Rennes, 

 asking for information concerning the pattern of comorarum. 

 With great generosity my kind friend at once presented to 

 the Hope Collection the interesting examples of comorarum, 

 mayottensis, dumetorum, and the Madagascar form of saclava 

 which are now exhibited. The two specimens of comorarum 

 and the mayottensis formed part of the collection made b}' 

 L. Humblot (1885-6). 



Comparing the four species it is at once evident that the 

 eastern pair dumetorum vend frobeoiia, are related together and 

 qviite distinct from the north-western pair, mayottensis and 

 comorarum, which are even more closely related to each other. 

 Furthermore, as we should expect from their more isolated 

 position, the eastern species are far more distantly removed 

 from the Madagascar saclava than the north-western ; while 

 in each pair the species from the outer island is far more 

 remote from saclava than the species in the island which is 



