Fossil Butterflies: Memoirs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I.Scudder, Samuel Hubbard
Science
Fossil Butterflies: Memoirs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I.
Scudder, Samuel Hubbard
Butterflies, Fossil
I have noticed this species at p. 109 of my catalogue of
Fabrician Diurnal Lepidoptera; Mr. W. H. Edwards of W.
Virginia having decided in his Butterflies of N. America that
it is unquestionably an _Argynnis_ allied to _A. Diana_,
notwithstanding the important discrepancies which Heer points
out [128]. That it may bear some distant relationship to
_A. Diana_ is quite possible, but that it is “plainly an
_Argynnis_” is quite another thing; to my mind it is plainly a
_Vanessid_, probably a _Junonia_ near to _J. Hedonia_, and I
think some points in Heer’s description (of which Mr. Edwards
takes no notice) are very important, as evidencing its near
relationship to _J. Hedonia_ rather than to _A. Diana_ [here he
quotes Heer’s description of the submarginal spots].
The ocelli are well shown in Heer’s figure, but in the woodcuts
by Lyell and Edwards, which have in other respects been made
much darker than the original, the indication of the lower edge
of the ocelli has been omitted altogether, and, consequently,
the resemblance to the species of _Junonia_ is rendered less
evident. I think it just possible, from the great resemblance
which _V. Attavina_ of Heer bears to the under surface of _J.
Hedonia_, that it is the reverse of _J. Pluto_.
This species is very simple in its markings (Pl. II, fig. 17), the
whole upper surface, excepting a broad space next the outer border of
the fore wings (the equivalent part of the hind wings is not preserved)
being of an uniform dusky tint; a broad belt of a lighter shade margins
the (fore) wings, growing less distinct from the darker base above the
next to the lowest subcostal nervule; this belt darkens toward the outer
border, especially in slight dusky fleckings along the nervures and down
the middle of the interspaces; the latter streaks reach small, round,
blackish spots about one-quarter the width of the interspaces, in the
middle of the basal two-thirds of their lighter parts. Heer represents
them too far from the outer margin of the wing, and as often crowned
above with a dark semicircular line, which is not at all indicated in the
drawing made for me; these spots are found in all the interspaces below
the outermost superior subcostal nervule, but they are very indistinct
and minute above, faint below and only distinct and as large as stated
in the three interspaces next above the lowest median nervule. The light
belt is two interspaces wide in the upper median interspace, but widens
a little above this and is separated from the darker base by a vague
and very slightly crenate line (less crenate than in the representation
by Heer), which approaches the outer margin at the nervures and to a
slightly greater extent in the lower part of each interspace than in the
upper.
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