52 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



band ; I have not seen an example from the New Hebrides in which it is as 

 broad as in the Samoan specimens. Moreover, the ground-colour in the male 

 of the present form is of a much brighter and more metallic blue, and the speci- 

 mens are on the average considerably smaller. Druce states that there are in 

 the British Museum specimens of J. carissima from Samoa, but the only J amides 

 from this locality in the collection are J. argentina ; his figure (PL XVII, fig. 17) 

 appears to be true J. carissima; Butler (1875, p. 615) records J. argentina 

 from the New Hebrides, but there are no specimens of the form in the British 

 Museum except from Samoa. There is considerable variation in all the Pacific 

 J amides, and this has led to many of the species being recorded from localities 

 where they do not occur, but in the main the geographical forms are fairly 

 well-defined and constant. Their synonymy is, however, in a most unfortunate 

 state owing to misidentifications and incorrect localities, and much further 

 material from all localities is required to clear up the confusion. Fruhstorfer 

 is possibly correct in treating them all as races of the Indo-Malayan J. bochus 

 Cr., but this cannot be satisfactorily proved until further material, with exact 

 data, is available from all groups. 



The maximum, mean, and minimum expanse of thirty-three males from 

 Western Samoa are 29, 25"5, and 22 mm., and of fifteen females 29, 26, and 

 20 mm. ; the corresponding figures for five males and seven females from 

 Tutuila are 28, 26, and 24 mm., and 30, 27, and 24 mm. A single much-worn 

 female from Tau, which appears to be of this form, measures 28 mm. in expanse. 



Abundant in Samoa throughout the year, at many localities at sea-level 

 in all the islands visited, and found wherever the food-plant, Vigna lutea A. Gr. 

 (Leguminosae), a common yellow-flowered creeper, occurs. The male is 

 commoner than the female. The insect seems little attracted to flowers, and is 

 seldom seen far away from the food-plant. 



The egg is white, of the " bun-shape " common in the Lycaenidae, and 

 0*54 mm. in diameter ; the surface is covered with very fine sculpturing and the 

 whole egg is surrounded by a zone of transparent bubble-like material which 

 is presumably solidified froth. The eggs are laid singly on the base of a bud, 

 or the stem of a flower. 



The larva is pale green, the head and spiracles pale brown ; when young- 

 it has a conspicuous blackish spot on the prothorax, but this is absent when 

 the larva is full-grown. Length of full-grown larva about 11 mm. It eats 

 only the flowers, and feeds concealed within them. 



