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
Tertiaries of Radoboj, Croatia. Fore wing, Hof-Mineralien Kabinet,
Vienna. Hind wing, Museum of Gratz, Austria.
COLIATES SCUDDER.
The fore wing (Pl. II, fig. 5) is slightly more than twice as long as
broad; the costal border is straight for fully two-thirds its length, and
then curves gradually and slightly downward, the apex rounded off; the
outer margin has a nearly regular and slight convexity, but is nearly
straight in the middle half; the lower outer angle is rounded and the
inner margin slightly convex. The costal nervure scarcely reaches the
middle of the costal border; the discoidal cell is but little more than
half the length of the wing; the subcostal nervure has but two superior
branches, although the outer is not only itself forked, but its upper
fork is branched at the extreme tip of the wing; the first superior
nervule is emitted at some distance previous to the tip of the cell,
or opposite the base of the first median nervure; it terminates in the
middle of the outer half, of the costal margin, and the forked branch of
the outer superior nervule supports the extreme apex of the wing; the
inferior subcostal nervule arises midway between the bases of the two
superior nervules, and terminates about one-third way down the outer
border; the vein closing the cell strikes it near the base and has an
inward convexity, meeting the upper median nervule farther from its
origin; the first median nervule originates at some distance beyond the
middle of the cell.
In the form of the wing and its neuration this fossil group is more
nearly allied to Delias (Pl. II, fig. 4) than to any other genus I have
been able to examine. It is plain at first glance that it must be placed
in the vicinity of Delias, Thyca, Prioneris and similar East Indian
Fugacia, in which there are but two superior subcostal nervules, and
in which the outer of these is forked; but I have met with no instance
among these in which one of these forks is itself branched; and this
insect differs notably from them all in the elongate form of the wing,
the remarkably straight costa[AD] and the shorter discoidal cell; and
from all Pierids in the shortness of its costal nervure and the basal
extension of the first superior subcostal nervule; this latter nervure
always originates, in every living type I have examined, at or beyond a
point opposite the middle of the space between the bases of the first and
second median nervules.
COLIATES PROSERPINA SCUDDER.
Plate II, fig. 5.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account