28 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



much longer standing. In this connection an observation made by Simmonds 

 on H. bolina pallescens in the neighbourhood of Suva, on the island of Viti Levu, 

 Fiji, is of very great interest. He had noted over a period of several years that 

 females always outnumbered males in this district, though the discrepancy 

 was not nearly so great as in Western Samoa ; in March 1926, however, on his 

 return after an absence of about a year, he found that the proportions were 

 reversed, and that males now outnumbered females, as is usual in the species. 

 This was also my own experience during a few days spent in the Suva neigh- 

 bourhood in December 1925, when I found males outnumbering females by 

 at least three to one. 



The insect is a strong and rapid flier, and visits the flowers of Stachytarpheta 

 and Lantana ; it has a habit of flying in under the overhanging branches of 

 bushes, and settling there on a branch or the underside of a leaf, usually head 

 downwards, but ready to fly off at the least alarm. The female carries the male 

 during copulation. 



Specimens from Upolu and Savai'i do not differ in any way from each 

 other ; this is well shown in the size, maximum, mean, and minimum expanse 

 of ninety-five females from Upolu being 80, 70, and 52 mm., and of ten females 

 from Savai'i, 78, 70, and 62 mm. Specimens from Tutuila, on the other hand, 

 are extremely different, and are provisionally referred to the form pallescens 

 Butler (q.v.). 



The eggs are always green, instead of being sometimes green and sometimes 

 yellow as in the Fijian race of //. bolina ; they have eleven very prominent 

 longitudinal ridges, and are laid in a batch of about six on the underside of a 

 leaf of Sida rhombifolia (Malvaceae). The diameter is 0*79 mm., and the height 

 0"86 mm. Eggs hatch three days after being laid. 



Walker (Poulton, p. 649) describes the larva of the Marquesan race as 

 follows : " General aspect that of a Vanessa or Argynnis larva. Length from 

 If to more than 2 inches ; cylindrical, rather stout, a little attenuated in front. 

 Head a little larger than 2nd segment, deeply bifid at top, and bearing, on 

 each lobe, a long blackish spine pointing upwards and a little forwards ; colour 

 light reddish-brown or burnt-sienna. Body deep brownish-black, with a rather 

 well-defined, irregular, sub-spiracular, longitudinal stripe on each side, light 

 burnt-sienna colour ; legs and prolegs the same tint. Segments 3-12 bear 

 eight ochreous-orange, slightly branched spines about \ inch long, rigid and 

 somewhat irritating when handled ; segment 2 has only two short spines on 



