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INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



Warren founded this species on a single $ in Mus. Tring, collected by 

 Woodford. In my manuscripts I had, with a considerable degree of confidence, 

 treated as identical with it A. paralhla Warren, described ten pages later from 

 a specimen from Lifu, Loyalty Is., and made the type of the genus (subgenus, 

 vide supra) Xenoprora. This is characterised by the peculiar <j palpus, which 

 is short, thick, upcurved and heavily rough-scaled above. In doing as I did 



1 was not far wrong, seeing that the two are unmistakably subspecies or repre- 

 sentative species, with identical palpi, even if they do not ultimately prove to 

 be absolute synonyms. But my experience in the matter of Cleora samoana and 

 its group (vide infra) has made me hesitant with regard to premature unions ; 

 and I notice that the only known <$ of A. samoana, besides appearing slightly 

 narrower-winged and more yellowish than the rest of the Xenoprora thus 

 far known, shows on the fore wing beneath, at and in front of the end of the 

 cell, a roundish patch of dense, somewhat specialised scaling, of which I cannot 

 discover a trace in any other example. None of the material, however, is in 

 really fresh condition and I would not unduly stress the distinction. The 2 

 from Malololelei are of a larger, more yellowish- tinged, superficially very 

 different-looking form from Warren's type bat I am inclined to think that 

 they belong to the same species. 



Besides the Samoan material detailed above, and the 4 and 3 of A. 

 paralhla in the Tring Museum, examples of the same species or superspecies are 

 known from Fiji and the Society Islands. From the former group, the Joicey 

 collection contains a $ from Viti Levu (Woodford), ex. coll. Drace, of fairly 

 large size, fleshy-tinged rather than yellowish, with the median shade of the 

 fore wing rather strong, and in general agreeing with A. parallela rather than 

 with A. samoana. A second on which I made no special notes, has passed 

 through my hands, having been submitted to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology 

 for determination. From the latter group (Tahiti), the British Museum has 



2 extremely worn, which perhaps represent another race, since both have 

 a more consolidated and darkened (black-brown) cell-mark on the hind 

 wing. 



No other species of Xenoprora is known, but the subgenus is clearly the 

 progenitor of Emmesura Warren (India to Celebes), which has the same $ palpus 

 but contorted venation. Stibarostoma Warren (India to the Solomon Is. and 

 Queensland) has also its specialisation on the palpus, but in that group the 

 second segment is long. In all three subgenera the areole is obsolete. 



