152 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



gestions of longitudinal connection between these and the postmedian at bases 

 of R 3 -M 2 ; postmedian double, the outer a little the more curved ; subterminal 

 triple, the proximal two dark-marked just in front of R 3 ; termen with minute 

 blackish dots at ends of veins. Hind wing with termen very weakly bent at 

 R 3 ; C anastomosing with SC to about § cell, SO very shortly stalked, M 1 very 

 well separated at origin from R 3 ; subbasal lines wanting, antemedian both well 

 proximal to cell-dot, weak anteriorly ; the rest nearly as on fore o wing, the 

 postmedians somewhat outbent at middle, here subconfluent. 



Under side almost unmarked. 



Upolu : Malololelei, 3 24.ii.1924. 



A coloured figure will be published in Part III, Fascicle 4. 



GEOMETRINAE. 



This gigantic assemblage, the Boarmianae [sic] of Hampson, Selido- 

 semidae of Meyrick, Ennominae of Hulst, is comparatively weakly represented 

 in Melanesia, and apparently — except for the species of the Chogada group of 

 Cleora, which are often disproportionately dominant numerically — extremely 

 weakly in Polynesia. Defective though our data remain in several respects, it 

 will not be altogether without value to give here some statistical comparisons 

 of the prevalence of this subfamily in various faunistic regions with that of the 

 Geometridae as a whole. 



For the Palaearctic Region as understood by Staudinger and Rebel (Cat. 

 Lep. Palaearct. 1901) — i.e. the region in which the small and obscure Geometrids 

 sucli as Sterrha and Eupithecia have been the least inadequately studied in 

 relation to the rest, with a resultant prejudice to any apparent dominance of 

 " Boarmiinae " — there were recognised about 396 Boarmiids out of a total 

 of 1233, or about 32 per cent. In Vol. IV of Seitz's " Macrolepidoptera of the 

 World " — where we find a wider conception of the Palaearctic Region, including 

 vast tracts of China in which investigation of the obscure genera in question has 

 scarcely even commenced — I find the percentage of Geometrinae has risen to 

 38-5 (some 870 species out of nearly 2,260). 



With reference to Boreal America, Barnes and McDunnough in 1917 cata- 

 logued 516 Geometrinae out of 1,047 Geometridae, or 47 per cent. For 



