BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 21 



Specimens of this species from Samoa and Tonga do not appear separable 

 from each other, or from the Tahitian form. All that I have seen from both 

 groups are of the wet-season form, but two males and a female from Tonga 

 in the British Museum, and five males taken by me in Togatabu in March 

 1925, are somewhat transitional towards the dry-season form. There is much 

 variation both in size and markings in specimens from all localities, but I have 

 not been able to find any racial or seasonal relation in the variation, and as the 

 numbers are small I do not give the figures. The largest and smallest speci- 

 mens that I have seen from the area are both males, and were taken by Whitmee 

 in Samoa, but the exact locality is not given. One male in the British Museum 

 from Tutuila, 23.iv.03 (M. J. Nicoll), is entirely without markings on the upper- 

 side, except a faint patch of yellowish suffusion in the position usually occupied 

 by the yellow sub-apical blotch. 



Never a common species in the neighbourhood of Apia, but rather com- 

 mon in neglected coconut plantations in the Aleipata district of Upolu, in 

 several localities in Savai'i, and in Tutuila, it also occurs in Tau and probably 

 throughout the Samoan group. It is also common in Tonga at Nukualofa, and 

 doubtless many other localities ; there are in the British Museum several speci- 

 mens from Vavau, taken by the Eclipse Expedition, in April 1911. Outside 

 our area the species is widely distributed in the Pacific, but does not seem to 

 be recorded from any of the groups to the north or north-west of Samoa. 

 It is not strictly confined to sea-level, but occurs commonly in some places up 

 to 1,000 feet or more. It is mainly crepuscular in its habits, but odd specimens 

 are often found flying by day, especially in shady places. 



Egg. — A female was seen ovipositing (7.vi.25, Apia district) on the under- 

 side of a blade of grass ; only two eggs were laid. These were of a very pale 

 green colour, and to the naked eye appeared perfectly smooth, but under a 

 microscope proved to be covered with reticulation in very low relief ; they were 

 hemispherical in shape, and 12 mm. in diameter. Larvae emerged four days 

 later, but refused to feed. 



The newly-hatched larva is almost white, with a black head. Swezey 

 records finding the larvae of this species twice on sugar-cane in Samoa ; this, 

 however, is evidently not the usual food-plant there, for the butterfly is found 

 commonly in districts where no sugar-cane is grown. Schmeltz (p. 191) states 

 that " The larva lives on Cyperaceae, and is green with two horn-like processes 

 on the head." 



