BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 15 



side with Tutuila specimens, but on the underside there is no trace of the greyish 

 suffusion so characteristic of the latter, so that I see no reason to suppose that it 

 is incorrectly labelled. The form, however, would appear to be uncommon. 

 A large male in the British Museum labelled " Atafu, Union Is., J. J. Lister " 

 (apparently the only record of a Euploea from this group), is like the better- 

 marked specimens from the Ellice group in pattern, and E. e. distincta also 

 appears to be the common form in Wallis Island (Poulton, p. 584, PL XLII, 

 figs. 8-10). Maximum, mean, and minimum expanse of specimens from the 

 Ellice Is. are : male 81, 75*5, and 72 mm. ; female 77, 72, and 68 mm. 



The larva was found on a species of Ficus, which grows either as an 

 independent plant, or as an epiphyte in a tuft of fern on a coconut palm. 

 Unfortunately it was not preserved. 



Buxton notes that the flight of the adult in the Ellice Is. is not at all like 

 that of E. schmeltzi, being much more soaring, and that the insect makes long 

 flights from tree to tree ; this is also true of the races of E. eleutho found in Tutuila 

 and in Tonga. The butterfly was fond of sitting on the broad leaves of various 

 trees, and was not common except in Nui. 



4. Euploea schmeltzi schmeltzi (H.S.). 



Euploea schmeltzi ; Herrich-Schaeffer, 1869, p. 70, PI. II, fig. 8. 

 Butler, 1874, p. 277. 

 Fruhstorfer, 1910, p. 241. 

 Rebel, 1910, p. 416, PI. XVIII, figs. 2 and 3. 

 Euploea schmeltzii ; Schmeltz, 1876, p. 181. 



Pagenstecher, p. 302. 

 Deragena schmeltzii ; Fraser, p. 147. 



Moore, p. 272. 

 Waterhouse, 1904, p. 492. 

 Deragena schmeltzi ; Swezey, 1921, p. 602. 

 Euploea schmeltzii schmeltzii ; Poulton, p. 596. 



This species occurs very commonly in Western Samoa with D. m. melittula, 

 and frequents the same kinds of flowers, but in addition it is found in flocks of 

 many hundreds on Toumefortia argentea L. (Boraginaceae), a common strand 

 tree (Buxton, 1926, Hopkins, 1926). All the specimens captured on this tree 

 (several dozen in number) turned out to be males ; Armstrong on one occasion 

 saw " About 150 on one dead branch below the tree, all males." Trees of the 



