BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 35 



11 (a). Precis villida villida (F.). 



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



Junonia villida ; Butler, 1878, p. 297, 1883, p. 415, 1895, p. 238. 

 Swezey, 1921, p. 603. 



Junonia vellida ; Rainbow, p. 95. 



Woodford, 1895, p. 349. 

 This form was described by Fabricius from specimens from " Amsterdam 

 Island " (Togatabu), and the types are in the Banks Collection in the British 

 Museum. It seems to be widespread in our area, and I am unable to separate 

 specimens from the various groups except those from Western Samoa, which 

 Rebel has described under the name P. villida samoensis. There is considerable 

 variation in size, as is shown by the figures in Table II. The numbers examined 

 from each locality are as follows : Tonga, six males, four females ; Tutuila, 

 eleven males, seven females ; Ellice group, three males, three females ; Olosega 

 (Swain's Island) three males, two females ; Western Samoa (ssp. samoensis), 

 forty-three males, seventeen females. It should be noted that the figures given 

 for the Ellices and for Olosega are not means ; from the former locality the 

 measurements given are those of all specimens available, from the latter island 

 three males measured 46 mm. and the fourth 45 mm., two females measured 

 54 and 45 mm. There is considerable variation in other respects besides size, 

 but it does not appear to be constant in any one locality. Both this and the 

 next race can readily be separated from specimens of the Australian race (calybe 

 Godt.) by the underside of the hindwing, which in the island specimens is of 

 a much yellower shade of grey and always bears well-developed eye-spots. 



In Samoa, the form is common in Tutuila, and I have one specimen from 

 Tau Island. In the Ellices, Buxton obtained specimens in Nui, Nanumea, and 

 Nukufetau, and Rainbow records it as occurring in Funafuti. Woodford states 

 that in this group the larva eats Scaevola hoenigii Vahl. (Goodeniaceae), and 

 Buxton found the larvae feeding singly on the same plant ; in Olosega (Swain's 

 Island) a single specimen of this species was the only butterfly he saw, but 

 there are other specimens from this island in the British Museum (J. J. Lister). 

 Buxton also saw it on Atafu, Tokelau Islands. I did not meet with the species 

 in Tonga, but there are specimens in the British Museum from both Vavau and 

 Togatabu ; no doubt, like P. villida samoensis in Western Samoa, it has strictly 

 defined seasons, but the only dated specimens from Tonga are those taken 

 by the Eclipse Expedition in Vavau, in April or May. 



