BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 17 



12 3 4 MILES 



butterflies in numbers flying out from the mainland towards the small out- 

 lying islands of Namua and Nuutele (Text-fig. 1). As there was no perceptible 

 wind, and the directions of the flights to the two islands were nearly at right angles, 

 he concludes that the islands must have been visible to the butterflies from the 

 shore, a distance of more than a mile in 

 the case of Nuutele. There does not appear 

 to be any other possible explanation of the 

 facts.* 



The form is found commonly through- 

 out Western Samoa, but we did not 

 meet with it in Tutuila ; Schmeltz (p. 

 181), however, records a specimen from 

 there; Eechinger (Eebel, 1910, p. 417) 

 gives Tutuila as one of the localities 

 where he observed it ; and Poulton (p. 

 606) states that Mathew found " Euploea 

 [helcita bourkei and schmeltzi] " at Pago- 

 Pago. The names in brackets were 

 added by Poulton, who informs me that the original record merely gives the 

 genus and no specific names ; there can be no doubt that the species referred to 

 was E. eleutho bourkei. Rechinger's record is equally unsatisfactory ; all the 

 specimens (twelve in number) brought home by him were from localities in 

 Upolu and Savai'i, nor were any of his specimens of other species of butterflies 

 taken in Tutuila (Rebel gives full particulars of the number captured in each 

 locality and the total number obtained), so that it is obvious that he did not 

 collect in Tutuila at all, but merely saw a species of Euploea (which must have 

 been E. eleutho bourkei) and assumed that it was E. s. schmeltzi. This is further 

 borne out by the fact that he did not capture either E. e. bourkei or the male of 

 Hypolimnas bolina, although these are the commonest butterflies in Tutuila. 

 There are no specimens from Tutuila in the British Museum, and I think 

 we are justified in ignoring Schmeltz's old record, and stating that 

 E. e. schmeltzi is entirely confined to Western Samoa. Outside Samoa its 

 nearest relative is E. schmeltzi ivhitmei (Butl.), which occurs in the Loyalty 

 Islands. These closely related forms are widely separated geographically, 



Text-figuee 1. — Coast -line in the Aleipata 

 district of Upolo Island, Samoa, show- 

 ing lines of flight of Euploea schmeltzi 

 from mainland to outlying islands. 



III. 1 



* See p. 46 for a similar habit of Catophoga jacquinotii manaia. 



2 



