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
As far as the neuration is concerned (excepting that of the costal
nervure, which is certainly incorrectly rendered, and does not
accord with the description) it agrees sufficiently with the general
neuration of Mylothris[AB] to suppose it may belong to the allied
genus Mylothrites, but that it can belong to _M. Pluto_ is exceedingly
improbable, as one may judge by tracing the probable extent of the broken
hind wing, and placing the tracing in juxtaposition with the fore wing of
Pluto, as in the accompanying woodcut (fig. 1); for it must be remembered
that in all the genera of this subfamily, the cell extends at least to
the middle of the wing; the hind wing of _M. Pluto_ must, therefore, have
certainly been fully one-sixth longer than the wing conjectured to belong
to it; so great a difference is at least unusual among individuals of the
same species in this group; moreover, the neuration is not quite what we
should expect, although the appearance of veins on the drawing we have
reproduced must be in part due to extraneous causes; we will, therefore,
make no attempt to decipher the present condition of the fossil, trusting
that some of the Austrian lepidopterists will give the subject early
attention.
A study of the original description and illustration of the front wing
of this butterfly leads me to the conclusion that the description of the
neuration of the fossil was drawn up from the illustration and not from
the fossil itself. Both agree in the points in which my drawing (Pl. II,
fig. 7) differs from them; and since in these very points they will not
harmonize with the neuration of any living Lepidoptera, while the drawing
I present agrees as well as could be desired with certain of them, I
am forced to believe the original drawing published by Heer, and the
accompanying description, presumably founded upon it, to be incorrect. I
am acquainted with but very few living butterflies[AC] in which a nervule
is emitted from the inferior side of the subcostal nervure nearer the
base of the wing than any of the superior nervules of the same vein; this
is the manner in which the neuration of this butterfly is represented
in Heer’s plate and in his description, if read carefully in connection
with the plate; although he does not tell us on which side of his _zweite
Hauptast his dritte Hauptast_ originates.
The description given by Heer of the markings of the fore wing is more
complete than I have been able to offer from an inspection of drawings
alone; it differs, too, in one somewhat important point, in that what I
have called a broad lighter belt with blackish dots in each interspace,
he has described as a series of pale circular spots as broad as the
interspaces, each containing a blackish pupil. A reëxamination of the
fossil upon this point is desirable; the only indication of such circular
pale spots in my drawing is the curved boundary in each interspace
between the darker and lighter portions.
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