34 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



10 (c). Hypolimnas bolina rarik (Esch.). 

 Apatura rarik Escholtz, 1821, Kotzeb. Reise, p. 203, t. 5, f. 10. 

 Hypolimnas rarik ; Woodford, 1895, p. 348. 

 Diadema otaheitae ; Butler, 1878, p. 297. 

 Hypolimnas bolina elliceana Fruhstorfer, 1912, p. 553. 



The type locality of this race is the Gilbert Islands, but it appears to be the 

 dominant form in the Ellice group also. 



Fruhstorfer's description of H. bolina elliceana is as follows : "In the Ellice 

 Is., to the N.W. of Samoa, we encounter a very small melanotic form ; elliceana 

 subsp. nov., represented in the British Museum." Of the two females from 

 the Ellice Islands in the British Museum, one is quite typical H. bolina rarik, 

 the other, labelled as Fruhstorfer's type, is of the nerina form, and is 88 mm. 

 in expanse. A form resembling it is figured by Poulton, PI. LIII, fig. 3 ; it is 

 probably the specimen recorded by Butler (1878, p. 297) as D. nerina. These 

 females are accompanied by three males. Of the specimens collected by 

 Buxton, four are males, and five females ; four of the latter are typical H . bolina 

 rarik ; the fifth (the only female from Nui) has the white postdiscal band on the 

 upperside of the forewing much obscured by dark suffusion, the orange some- 

 what restricted, and the white blotch on the hindwing strongly suffused with 

 yellow. The maximum, mean, and minimum expanse of seven males from the 

 Ellice group are 82, 73, and 66 mm., of six females (excluding the type of H. 

 bolina elliceana) 86, 82, and 75 mm. 



Specimens of the species were observed in Nanumea, Nui, Nukulailai, 

 Nukufetau and Niutao ; males and females were about equally common at 

 the time of Buxton's visit. Mathew (Poulton, p. 647) records it from Funafuti, 

 and it doubtless occurs throughout the group. The form rarik appears to be 

 a fairly constant one, which does not occur in our area except in the Ellices, 

 unless a male 94 mm. in expanse, taken by J. J. Lister in Fakaofu, Tokelau 

 group, and now in the British Museum, belongs thereto ; this seems to be the 

 only record of H. bolina from the Tokelaus. 



The adults are fond of sitting head downwards on a tree-trunk like a 

 Vanessa, and the larva eats Pipturus propinquus Wedd., Sida (the usual food- 

 plant elsewhere) being apparently absent from the Ellices. Woodford (1895, 

 p. 349) states that in the Gilberts the larva feeds upon a species of Abutilon. 



