150 



INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



Under side coloured nearly as hind wing above, the fore wing more tinged 

 with honey-yellow. 



Upolu : Malololelei, 2,000 feet, type o.vii., paratype 14.vii.1924. 



I scarcely think this can be a race of S. elaica Meyrick, of which the type 

 Q is worn, the hind wing apparently grey, not buff, while the fore wing has 

 heavier black-brown markings. 



A figure of this species, in colour, will appear in Part III, Fascicle 4. 



Asthena Hiibner. 



A rather small genus, consisting, as at present restricted, of only twenty- 

 two species, although some related groups — Bihastina Prout, with dentate and 

 excavated distal margins, Minoa Treitschke, with rather different venation and 

 different habitus and ecology, and Laciniodes, with heavier palpus — might 

 well be treated as subgenera. Of the number mentioned, sixteen species are 

 Palaearctic, Chinese, or Himalayan, and there is consequently some room for 

 doubt whether the remaining six have any really near connection with them ; 

 of these six, five inhabit New Guinea, w T hile A. euthecta Turner (1904) occurs in 

 Queensland and Victoria. 



The genotype, A. albulata Hufnagel (= A. candidata Schiffermuller) is 

 rather abnormal, having the cell of the fore wing nearly -|, the areoles generally 

 both small, with all the five subcostals stalked well beyond them ; and Turner, 

 in proposing (Tr. Roy. Soc. S. Austral., xlvi, 233, 1922) to remove his A. euthecta 

 to Minoa, would also remove nearly all the other Asthena, including even A. 

 anseraria Herrich-Schaffer, A. nymphaeata Staudinger and A. lassa Prout (1926), 

 which, indeed, not only have (like A. euthecta) normally developed areoles, with 

 SC 1 arising from the anterior margin of the distal one, but further differ vena- 

 tionally from A. albulata in that the cell is § or scarcely longer. On the other hand, 

 another abnormal and rather discordant species (" Autallacta " livida Warren, 

 1896) could remain with A. albulata in so far as regards the stalking of the five 

 subcostals, yet has the distal areole elongate and the cell even shorter than in 

 the anseraria group. Finally, I have one aberrant A. albulata in which SC 5 

 arises just proximally to the end of the outer areole. It is evident, therefore, 

 that some other differential characters must be sought, or the assemblage be 

 left undisturbed . I am content, for the present, to accept the latter alternative 

 Minoa should either be merged (as by Meyrick) or preferably restricted to its 



