1878.] FROM THE ELLICE ISLANDS. 297 



Schmeltz, in a paper criticisiug my determinations of South-Pacific 

 Butterflies. Heir Schmeltz considered E. distincta to be an indi- 

 vidual variety, and regarded it as an injury to science to give it a 

 name ; it is therefore satisfactory to find that E. distincta is the 

 common Euplcea of the Ellice Islands, and consequently may be re- 

 garded as a fixed local form, of equal importance with E. helcita, E. 

 angasii, and others of the E.-eleutho group. 



RHOPALOCERA. 



NYMPHALID.E. 



Euplcea, Fabricius. 



1. Euplcea eleutho. 



Danais eleutho, Quoy & Gaimard, in Freycinet's Voy. pi. 83. 

 fig. 2(1815). 



The fact that this species is so rare that Mr. Whitmee only brought 

 home a single example seems to show that its time of appearance is 

 not synchronous with that of E. distincta. It represents the oppo- 

 site extreme of modification in the group to which it belongs, and 

 therefore is not likely to be a variety, since forms more nearly ap- 

 proaching E. distincta in character are known to be locally con- 

 stant. 



2. Euplcea distincta. 



Euplcea distincta, Butler, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 278. 



A good series, in both sexes, was obtained by Mr. Whitmee. 



Junonia, Hiibner. 



3. Junonia villida. 



Papilio villida, Fabricius, Mant. Ins. p. 35. no. 366 (1787). 

 Resembles Australian examples, being less suffused with orange 

 tawny than Samoan specimens. 



Diadema, Boisduval. 



4. Diadema nerina. 



Papilio nerina, Fabricius, Syst. Ent. p. 509. no. 277 (1775). 



The whole of the specimens are rather small, resembling those of 

 Cape York. 



5. Diadema otaheit^;. 



Diadema auge, Cramer, var. otnheitce, Felder, Verh. zool.-bot. 

 Ges. Wien, xii. p. 492. no. 185 (1862). 



This may possibly be a dwarfed race of the preceding species ; it 

 is the common form of Samoa, where the specimens run even smaller 

 than in the Eilice Islands. 



