( 30 ) 



either gondoti was a modified descendant of ei'phon, or in some 

 way it had replaced it. "With regard to the first point he 

 showed essential differences between the two ; goudoti being 

 more closely connected with that group of Euplceas placed by 

 Moore in the genus Yculehra, and euphon with those in hi& 

 genus Xiixira. He then discussed the possibly Malayan origin 

 of goudoti, and remarked more particularly on its extraordinary 

 resemblance to E. woodfordi from the Solomon Islands, and 

 expressed the opinion that all the Eujjlceas of this group were 

 derived from the same ancestral type, and suggested E. 

 diniena from Amboina and Ceram as being nearest to it. He 

 dealt with the former history of Mauritius and Bourbon, and 

 explained that both during the Dutch and French occupation 

 in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a large number of 

 Malayan plants were introduced into those islands, and that 

 inasmuch as the voyage from Java was only of three weeks to 

 a month's duration, there was no inherent improbability of 

 E. goudoti being brought to Bourbon by one of the Dutch or 

 French ships. He concluded by describing the physical 

 characteristics of the island, and said that the area favourable 

 for the existence of Euplo&as was extremely small, and as the 

 larv£e of goudoti&xA euphon fed on the same plants there was 

 in all probability a struggle for existence set up in which the 

 invader proved the stronger and eventually exterminated its 

 rival. 



Professor Poultox desired to congratulate Colonel Manders 



[xliv 

 for the careful manner in which he had worked up the evidence 

 bearing upon his brilliant suggestion. As one who had arrived 

 at an alternative interpretiition — viz. that goudoti represented 

 a recent modification of euphone in the island of Bourbon — he 

 desired to express his agreement with Colonel Manders, and 

 his conviction that the most probable solution of a puzzling 

 set of facts had been afforded by the hypothesis he had so 

 clearly explained to them that evening. He also remarked 

 that in the neighbouring island of Podriguez there was a 

 species of Euploea [desjardinsi) greatly resembling euphon, 

 and no doubt a geographical race of that species. This fact, 

 he considered, also suggested that euphon formerly existed in 

 Bourbon. 



