The butterflies of Vanuatu, with notes on their biogeography (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea)

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The butterflies of Vanuatu, with notes on their biogeography (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea)

Following fieldwork in 2000 and 2002, and examination of museum collections in the UK, Australia and the
USA, a tabulated list (Tab. 3) of the butterfly fauna of the Pacific island State of Vanuatu is presented. The number of
taxa recorded from the country is increased from previous assessments, and several dozen “new” island records made. The fauna comprises 85 subspecies of 69 species (including an estimated 5 species of the group of Jamides bochus (Stoll, [1782])) in 42 genera. These are fundamentally widespread taxa, many of which have dispersed widely throughout the Pacific. There are no endemic butterfly genera in Vanuatu, and only two endemic species: Deudorix mathewi Druce, 1892, and Polyura sacco Smart, 1977. Some 26 described subspecies (31%) are endemic to Vanuatu. Further taxa Prosotas russelli Tennent, 2003, Ionolyce lachlani Tennent, 2001, species of the group of Jamides bochus) are endemic to the New Hebrides Archipelago (i.e. found also on the Santa Cruz group, politically part of the Solomon Islands). Lines of faunal discontinuity are identified and comments made on regional biogeography.