■iR 



INSECTS OP SAMOA. 



specimens, filling only about half the area of each spot, the rest of which is 

 white, while in Tongan specimens the yellow quite fills the spot. 



Variation is not very extensive in this form : one male in the series 

 captured by Armstrong has the black subterminal band of the hindwing very 

 well-defined on the upperside, but in all the rest the inner part of it is very 

 indistinct, and merges into the white ground-colour ; the specimen referred 

 to has the submarginal white spots of both wings on the upperside smaller 

 than usual, and the apical spot on the forewing is missing. The chrome-yellow 

 on the underside is more extensive in some specimens than in the type, and 

 several of the females have the underside of the forewing strongly suffused with 

 chrome-yellow, from the base to beyond the middle. 



Two specimens of B. java from Samoa, the male from " Apia or Pago- 

 Pago," Nov. or Dec. 1892 (E. Bourlce), and the female from Lalomanu, Aleipata 

 district, Upolu Island, 24.ix.24, taken by myself, differ markedly from the 

 Tongan specimens and perhaps do not belong to the same- race ; further 

 examples would be of very great interest. The male (PI. I, fig. 3) has the 

 black markings much reduced, the subterminal band of the hindwing underside 

 being represented by a narrow terminal edging, so that the yellow subterminal 

 spots are not bordered on the inner side with black ; the black apical area of 

 the forewing is also much reduced, so that the white subterminal spots become 

 almost continuous with the ground-colour. The specimen is 56 mm. in expanse. 



The female (PI. I, fig. 4) has no black band along the discocellulars of 

 the hindwing upperside, as in Tongan specimens, but all the other black markings 

 are unusually extensive ; the upperside of the hindwing has all the veins out- 

 lined in black, and much black suffusion, and on the underside the black is so 

 extensive that the whole discai area of the wing becomes black, with an 

 elongate yellowish- white spot, strongly suffused with black, in the cell, and a 

 postdiscal series of similarly-coloured, somewhat triangular spots. Expanse 

 60 mm. 



The difference between these two specimens is very remarkable, the male 

 being much paler than Tongan specimens and the female much darker ; this 

 difference can hardly be seasonal, as both were taken in the wet season. It 

 may possibly be geographical, and it is most unfortunate that the male has not 

 more exact data ; it is quite possible that it comes from Tutuila, and that there 

 are separate races of the species in that island and in Western Samoa (as in 

 several other cases), but we have no evidence on the point at present. 



