32 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



The eight females in the Kellers collection, all labelled Tutuila, April 1918 

 (which are accompanied by fourteen males), and one labelled Pago-Pago. 

 Tutuila, Sept. 1923 (Swezey and Wilder), form, a remarkable contrast with all 

 the above. All have more or less " nerina-ied " (absent in every other specimen 

 from American Samoa which I have seen), and the last-mentioned is typical 

 H. bolina inconstans both in markings and size. Of the eight females collected 

 by Kellers, three have a distinct pale apical area on the fore wing, as in some 

 specimens from the Cook Islands, but differ from these latter in their much 

 smaller size. There is much variation in the extent of the orange area on the 

 forewing and also in the white discal patch on the hindwing ; in three of the 

 specimens this white patch is quite absent, and in two of these even the metallic 

 blue suffusion, which usually surrounds it, has almost entirely disappeared ; but 

 the postdiscal white band on the forewing is clearly-defined and unsuffused in all 

 of them. They vary in size from 96 to 74 mm., with a mean of 81 mm., whereas 

 other specimens from Tutuila are much more uniform in size, only varying from 89 

 to 75 mm., with the same mean ; in many respects they strongly resemble speci- 

 mens from Wallis and Fotuna Islands. I am unable to account for the extreme 

 difference between these specimens and all others from American Samoa that I 

 have seen ; the existence of the two females of the thomsoni form captured by 

 Nicoll in April 1903, seems to preclude the possibility that the difference is seasonal. 



The species is common at low elevations in Tutuila, but, as in Tonga, males 

 greatly outnumber females ; a captured series consists of forty-five males 

 and twelve females, in spite of a special effort having been made to 

 secure specimens of the latter sex. 



Samoan records of H. bolina have usually been under the name montrouzieri 

 Butler, but this is certainly a mistake ; the type male of this form was obtained 

 in the New Hebrides, but the female (in the British Museum) is labelled 

 " Navigators' Is." (=Samoa). It is a very large specimen, 96 mm. in expanse, 

 while females from Tutuila only average 81 mm., and is of a form that I have 

 not seen from any part of Samoa. It agrees very well both in size and markings 

 with females from the Cook Islands, and almost certainly came from that group. 

 The unreliability of old labels is well shown by the fact that there is, in the 

 same series, another female of the form (which is entirely confined in all its 

 modifications to Australia and the islands of the Pacific) labelled " Nepaul " 

 (with, of course, a note that the locality is erroneous). 



