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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2017
We investigate the possibility that the Far-UV spectral energy distributions (SED's) of M31 and NGC 1399 differ only in the relative contribution from classical PAGB stars and in the amount of extinction. A good fit to the M31 spectrum is obtained for E(B-V) = 0.11 if about 65% of the flux comes from PAGB stars and the rest from stars of the type producing the far-UV emission in NGC1399. We speculate that the UV continuum in both galaxies is dominated by stars in post-horizontal branch phases of evolution, with a distribution of post-HB masses governed primarily by the metallicity and metallicity spread of the population. This hypothesis can qualitatively explain both the relative fluxes of UV rising branches in NGC1399 and M31 and the shapes of their SED's.