BUTTERFLIES OF SAMOA AND SOME NEIGHBOURING ISLAND -GROUPS. 5 



of the Central Pacific, is the great difference between the fauna of Western and 

 that of American Samoa. I have shown this in tabular form in Table I. In 

 this table I have marked with a query those species which are rare, or which 

 occur only at a considerable altitude, and may therefore yet be met with in 

 the islands from which they have not hitherto been recorded. It will be noted 

 at once that, leaving out of consideration the cases of H. errabunda and A. 

 exulans, both of which come in this category, there are very interesting 

 differences between Western and American Samoa, and unexpected resem- 

 blances in several cases between the latter and Tonga. Ewploea eleutho occurs 

 in both Tonga and American Samoa but not in Western Samoa, as also does 

 Hypolimnas antilope ; Ewploea schmeltzi, on the other hand, though abundant 

 at low levels in Western Samoa, is absent from the eastern part of the group 

 and from Tonga. Furthermore, specimens of Hypolimnas bolina and of Precis 

 villida from American Samoa do not appear to be separable from Tongan ones, 

 while the same species occur in Western Samoa as quite distinct races : of the 

 sixteen species known from American Samoa five do not occur (at least as the 

 same race) in Western Samoa. There appears to be at least frimd facie evidence 

 that the fauna of Western Samoa has a slightly different origin from that of the 

 other two localities ; the difference is not confined to butterflies, but was 

 observed in other orders also. Even among the birds similar differences are to 

 be found : the king-hunter of Western Samoa is Todirhamphus recurvirostris, 

 which in both Tonga and American Samoa is replaced by races of Halcyon 

 sacra ; the former is confined to Western Samoa, but other species of the genus 

 are recorded as occurring in the Paumotu and Tahiti groups. It seems possible 

 that, while the faunas of Tonga and American Samoa have been derived from 

 Fiji, that of Western Samoa has come more directly from New Guinea. The 

 intervening islands may give evidence for or against this theory when their 

 insects are better known. 



Concerning local distribution in a particular island there is little to note. 

 As a rule the insects of the coast-belt are not found at higher elevations, except 

 where artificial clearings and roads have opened up the country to them. The 

 insects of any particular elevation are, however, usually identical in all parts 

 of the same island, as might be expected on account of the comparatively small 

 size of the latter. 



