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Show 1888.] LEPIDOPTERA OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 543 though composed of smaller spots than in II. alcmene; the secondaries paler, redder towards the outer border, and with larger white marginal and submarginal spots. Expanse of wings 92-99 millim. Three males and five females, obtained on the 3rd and 4th October. One of the specimens is labelled as having been taken at an elevation of " 700 feet on yellow creepers of jungle " and another " caught east of Lunch tree, October 4, 1887." The perfect constancy of this species interests me, inasmuch as I have recently been accused of making far too many species in this genus :- At a meeting of the Entomological Society of London (held Nov. 4th, 1885) Mr. Gervase F. Mathew exhibited a number of specimens of this genus of Butterflies from Fiji and other islands of the Western Pacific, and stated that the males varied in no way whatever, but of the females, of which forty-eight were exhibited, scarcely two were alike ; he concluded therefore that several species described as new were referable to a single species, and assured the members present that from one brood he had bred individuals agreeing with varieties from the Gilbert, Ellice, and Marshall Islands, the New Hebrides, New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, &c. Unfortunately the series exhibited to the meeting consisted of females from various localities, corresponding with the forms usually received from those localities, and therefore in no way supporting Mr. Mathew's statement ; it would have been interesting if the polymorphic brood described by him could have been exhibited, but the series before the meeting rather tended to prove the constancy of the various island-forms than the reverse. In a paper read before the same Society on the 7th December, 1887, and published in this year's 'Transactions,' Mr. Mathew associates all the local forms under the name of Hypolimnas bolina l and observes : - " This butterfly is occasionally to be seen in the vicinity of Sydney, but I never met with it there myself. I have taken it at Brisbane, Cooktown, Claremont Islands, Thursday Island, Fiji, New Caledonia, Friendly Islands, New Hebrides, Rotumah Island, Solomon Islands, Gilbert Islands, Samoa, Pelew Islands, New Guinea, New Britain, and have received it from Norfolk Island." He adds . - " O n account of the extraordinary manner in which the females vary, it being extremely difficult to obtain two exactly alike from the same brood of larvae, a number of new species have been described, among which I may mention naresii, mosteyi, pallescens, pulchra, and montrouzieri of Butler, and otaheitat, Felder." At a meeting of the same Society, held on the 4th April of the present year, Mr. Salvin exhibited about sixty specimens, no two of which were alike, of a species of Hypolimnas caught by Mr. Woodford near Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji, on one patch of Zinnias. This exhibition, though interesting, really added nothing to our knowledge of the genus, since the varieties shown were those connecting II. pallescens with an extremely dark representative of H. antigone, which in the Museum collection have been associated since the year 1 H. bolina is an Indian type never yet received from the Australian Eegion. 37* |
