BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND-GROUPS. 11 



group, and the form does not occur elsewhere. Schmeltz's records of D. melittula 

 and D. neptunia from Togatabu (1876, pp. 175 and 177) presumably refer to 

 this race. 



Poulton suggests (p. 607) that the somewhat reduced pattern may give the 

 form a superficial resemblance to the much commoner E. eleutho matheivi when 

 on the wing ; the markings do not seem dissimilar in flight, but D. melissa 

 angustata appears quite blue, while E. eleutho mathewi looks very white. 

 Possibly the female (which in this group of Danaines is usually of a considerably 

 paler blue than the male) would show more resemblance to the Euploea. 



3 (a). Euploea eleutho bourkei (Poulton). 

 Euploea eleutho ; Schmeltz, p. 180. 



Moore, p. 272. 

 Nipara helcita ; Moore, p. 258. 

 Euploea eleutho escholtzi ; Swezey, 1921, p. 602. 

 Euploea helcita bourkei ; Poulton, p. 585. 



Talbot (p. 26) has recently cleared up the confusion between E. " eleutho" 

 never found east of 150° E. longitude, and E. " helcita," which does not occur 

 to the west of 160° E. : he has shown that the error is to be traced back to 

 Boisduval, the following of whose mistake by various later authors accounts 

 for the records of E. eleutho from Samoa, Tonga, the Ellice Islands, etc., in all 

 of which it has certainly never occurred in its typical form. Talbot also pointed 

 out that the two " species " were probably only geographical races of one, of 

 which the prior name is eleutho. The main difference between the two " species " 

 is the presence in eleutho of a sexual brand, absent in "helcita" : that Talbot's 

 view is correct is shown by the specimens of E. eleutho bourkei (described below) 

 which had well-developed brands. The existence of specimens of bourkei, taken 

 on the same day and within a few yards of each other, some with brands and 

 some without, shows (if further proof were needed) how utterly fallacious is 

 the use of the male brands as generic or sub-generic characters in Euploea. 

 The forms of eleutho with brands and those without, which were formerly placed 

 in different genera, are now shown to occur, not only in the same species, but 

 in the same geographical race of that species ! Felder's E. eleutho escholtzi is a 

 Fijian race, and the Samoan record of it is erroneous. E. aglaina, a form with 

 much reduced white markings, was described by Fruhstorfer (1908, p. 276, PI. 86a) 

 as occurring in Tutuila, but, as pointed out by Poulton, this is almost certainly 



