BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 57 



have examined. One of these four (which are all males) is from Apia ; of the 

 others one is from Pago-Pago, Tutuila, one from Tail Island, and the other 

 (in the Bourke collection) from " Pago-Pago or Apia " ; these last three 

 have the ocelli larger than the average, but the metallic ring round them 

 is blue. 



A short series of this species caught on Talau Hill, Vavau, Tonga, in March 

 1925, and March 1926, may possibly represent a new race, but for the present 

 I prefer to refer them to the above form ; the four males have the ocelli small 

 and with blue scaling round them, but the yellow ring is present, though poorly 

 developed, in all of them ; the single female also has the ocelli small, but the 

 metallic scaling is greenish, and the yellow ring is fairly well-developed. 



The maximum, mean, and minimum expanse of twenty-nine males and 

 twelve females from Western Samoa are : males 30, 27, and 23 mm., females 

 29, 28, and 23 mm. ; in the four Tongan males the average expanse is 24 mm. ; 

 specimens from Savai'i do not differ in any respect from those from Upolu. 



In Samoa this form is found throughout the year, often abundantly at 

 Malololelei and other localities at high elevations ; also in the coastal region, 

 but never so commonly. I have specimens from Upolu, Savai'i, Manono, 

 Tutuila, and Tau ; it presumably occurs throughout the group. The specimens 

 from Vavau referred to above seem to be the only ones recorded from outside 

 Samoa. The adults, especially the males, frequent Lantana and other flowers. 

 On the 4th May, 1925, they were extremely abundant at Malololelei, migrating 

 from east to west, the wind being negligible, but in the direction of the flight ; 

 all the specimens captured (eight or nine) were females. At the same time the 

 species was very abundant at the flowers of Lantana and Mikania scandens 

 Willd. (Compositae), about half a mile farther up the hill in an easterly direction, 

 but here nearly all the specimens were male. What may have been part of a 

 similar flight was observed at the crater of Mata Vanu in Savai'i, at an altitude 

 of about 1,500 feet, on the 22nd November 1925, when many specimens of 

 this species were seen flying over the old lava from east to west ; only two 

 specimens were captured, both of which were females. 



The early stages are unknown. 



