26 Euploeines forming Mimetic Groups 



Any interpretation we have made of the facts brought forward in 

 this paper must be taken as entirely suggestive in the absence of 

 evidence that the aposematic pattern confers protection on the 

 individuals in the areas concerned. Nevertheless, the larger the 

 body of observed facts which are consistent with an hypothesis 

 supported by such evidence in other areas, the greater the probability 

 that the hypothesis is valid. 



APPENDIX. 



A. The Identity op some Forms of Euploea. 



1. Euploea eleutho Q and G. (pi. IIIb, fig. 6). 



Some confusion has existed as to the identity of this species, due 

 chiefly to its remarkable resemblance to helcita Bdv., especially in 

 the 2 . 



This species was first made known by Quoy and Gaimard, who 

 figured it in Freycinet's Voyage, pi. LXXXIII, fig. 12 (1815). The 

 text of this work was not published until 1824, when the authors gave 

 a description of eleutho on p. 554, and indicated the locality as Guam, 

 in the Marianne Islands. They say: "Nous n'avons rapporte que des 

 males. lis ont aux ailes superieures, comme plusieurs de leurs 

 congeneres, une raie longitudinale plus claire que le fond. Ce papillon 

 est tres repandu aux Mariannes ; on dit menie le considerer comme 

 l'espece la plus commune. II se plait sur les fleurs d'un petit arbrisseau 

 qui croit sur les bords de la mer et forme des buissons touffus." 



Prior to the publication of the text of Freycinet, Godart, in his 

 Ency. Meth. Supp. ix, p. 815, published a good description of eleutho. 



In Voy. Astrolabe, published in 1832, Boisduval describes eleutho on 

 p. 100, and gives Tahiti as an additional habitat. He does not mention 

 the stripe of androconia on the fore wing, and it is evident that he had 

 either the 2 before him or specimens of helcita, which he supposed 

 were 2 2 of eleutho. (It was not until 1859 that Boisduval described 

 helcita as another species, recognizing that the form from New 

 Caledonia was rather different from eleutho and similar forms elsewhere.) 



Monsieur Charles Oberthiir has very kindly sent me some interesting 

 documents in Boisduval's own writing. I quote from one of these on 

 eleutho : " Cet auteur " (Godart) " dit qu'il n'a vu que des males, mais 

 nous pouvons affirmes que les femelles ne different que par l'absence de 



