A checklist of the butterflies of Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and some adjacent areas

Abstract

A systematic checklist of the butterflies of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia is presented. A significant number of previously unpublished island records were found in major museum collections in the UK, Australia and the USA. Aspects of butterfly distribution, authorship of names, and taxonomy are addressed, and sources for about 2,200 published butterfly names are incorporated in a comprehensive bibliography of Pacific butterflies. Combined with recent publications dealing with specific areas, such as Papua New Guinea, a working systematic checklist of Pacific Region butterflies is available for the first time.

Colour and size variation inJunonia villida(Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae): subspecies or phenotypic plasticity?

“…The second author has encountered this species widely, notably in the Solomon Islands (Tennent, 2002), Vanuatu (Tennent, 2009), and the islands of Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea (ongoing fieldwork). Tennent (2006) also collated numerous records for the Pacific. Parsons (1998: 615) states that villida is 'apparently absent from Timor, the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Moluccas', but, as will be seen from the following list, this is not the case.…”

“…1 Barnett & Emms, 1998]); Cocos (Keeling) Islands (West Island [Holloway, 1983], Direction Island [= Tikus or Rat Island]); Christmas Island [Indian Ocean; Pendlebury, 1932]; Java [material seen with specific locality data is all from eastern Java]; Raäs [Kalis, 1933] [Chernov, 1994;Tennent, pers. ob., 2010]); Sudest; Solomons Archipelago (Bougainville, Alu, Maleai, Fauro, Mono, Choiseul, Vella Lavella, Ranongga, Ghizo, Kolombangara, New Georgia, Rendova, Santa Isabel, Pavuvu, Marulaon, Mane, Mbanika, Bellona, Rennell, Guadalcanal, Savo, Florida, Malaita, San Cristobal, Nendo, Utupua, Reefs, Tikopia, Anuta, Pio [Chernov, 1994]); Australia, including many small offshore islands [Smithers & Butler, 1983;Powell, 1998;Williams & Powell, 1999, 2006Edwards et al, 2001] [Chernov, 1994]); Society Islands (Tahiti); Tuamotu (Makatea, Tepoto, Napuka, Moruroa, Marutea South, Maria, Hikueru, Makemo); Gambier (Temoe); Marquesas [Fruhstorfer, 1912: 522; but see below].…”

“…However, while the presence of J. villida in the Society Islands has been confirmed since, there is no other record for villida from the Marquesas and it is not listed, for example, by Adamson (1939) or Viette (1950). The butterfly fauna of the Marquesas is remarkable in being both highly depauperate and highly endemic (excluding villida, six species, two of which are species endemics: Tennent, 2006). The Marquesas lie about 2000 km north of the Tuamotus.…”

“…Table 1. Assignment of subspecies to areas occupied by Junonia villida according to the accounts of Fruhstorfer (1912;general), Watkins (1925;general), central Pacific), Viette (1950;French Polynesia), Holloway & Peters (1976;New Caledonia), Tsukada (1985;SE Asia), Parsons (1998;Papua New Guinea), Braby (2000;Australia), and Tennent (2006;Pacific). Notes: Fruhstorfer made no mention of villida calybe, and his allocation of nominate villida 'throughout Australia' may have been a lapsus calami.…”

A stunning new species of Jamides Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), with notes on sympatric congeners from the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea

“…(Hirowatari 1992) recognised 57 species and additional species have been described by Tennent and Rawlins (2012), and Takanami (1994). From approximately west to east, Kunte et al (2015), Corbet and Pendlebury (1993), Treadaway and Schröder (2012), Rawlins et al (2014), Parsons (1998), Tennent (2002) and Tennent (2006) identified six species for India, 16 for the Malay Peninsula, 16 for the Philippines, 21 for Maluku, 15 for Papua New Guinea, eight for the Solomon Islands and nine for the remainder of the South West Pacific, respectively.…”