BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 13 



other butterfly-life except H. bolina and P. villida. Forms without a brand 

 are found from Tahiti in the east to the New Hebrides and New Caledonia 

 in the west, and (as stated above) are replaced still farther west by the form 

 with a brand (typical eleutho). 



The larva (PI. IV, fig. 5), in addition to the two pairs of fleshy filaments 

 borne by the caterpillars of E. schmeltzi and D. melittula, has a pair of these 

 processes on the metathorax and second abdominal segment respectively. In 

 colour it is brown-olive above, with a pair of small diamond-shaped white spots 

 on each segment ; the head is black, marked with two white bands ; the black 

 spiracles are borne on a broad cream-coloured spiracular line ; the legs are 

 black, the first pair much reduced ; the filaments plum-coloured. The speci- 

 men figured is not quite full-grown. The larva feeds on Ficus tinctoria Forst., 

 and doubtless also on other species of the same genus. 



3 (b). Euploea eleutho mathewi (Poulton). 

 Nipara eleutho ; Butler, 1883, p. 408. 

 Euploea helcita mathewi ; Poulton, p. 586. 



This race, the Tongan representative of E. eleutho, was found commonly 

 in all the localities visited in that group. It has a somewhat bolder flight than 

 E. schmeltzi, and in the evening, about 5.30 to 6 p.m., may be met with flying 

 low, apparently in preparation for roosting for the night. At these times the 

 butterfly circles round close to the ground, often settling on bushes and trees, or 

 on dead fallen leaves. Mathew records it (Poulton, p. 607) as roosting in flocks, 

 as do many species of the genus. Apparently it is not attracted to Stachytarpheta 

 flowers, but is fond of those of Ageratum ; I suspect that the former only attract 

 butterflies in the absence of more attractive flowers. Like other species of 

 Euploea it has a habit of settling on the dead twigs and branches of Tournefortia 

 (Buxton, 1926, Hopkins, 1926), but, as in the other cases, this seems to apply 

 only to the males, females not being found at this tree. Males are in general 

 more often captured than females, but I am not able to give exact figures. 



Variation is not extensive, but there is an interesting difference between 

 specimens from Togatabu and those from Vavau : in mathewi the sub-terminal 

 spots of the hindwing are usually fused in pairs, and in most specimens from 

 Togatabu this is found to be the case ; in Vavau specimens, on the other hand, 

 though this form is common, there is a definite tendency for the spots in question 

 to be separate. It would appear that we have here the beginning of the 



