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
Dark brown or blackish with light markings. On the upper half of the fore
wing (Pl. III, fig. 12), both above and below, the following markings
are found: a small quadrate spot on the costal border at the extremity
of the costal fold; depending from the costal border between the tips
of the second and third superior subcostal nervures a confluent series
of spots extending to the cell at right angles to the costal margin,
narrowing a little in passing downward; and midway between this and the
outer border, in the upper two subcostal interspaces opening on the
outer border, a small round spot; probably similar spots belong in some
of the interspaces below. On the under surface of the hind wings there
is a submarginal series of three small spots along the costa at equal
distances apart, the central one near the middle of the costa, and the
basal one nearly midway between it and the base of the wing; there is
also a larger spot near the tip of the cell and a second smaller one
a little below and beyond it; also a submarginal series of spots as
large as that in the cell parallel to the outer border, at about an
interspace’s distance from it, one in each interspace. Length of fore
wing, 14mm.; length of hind wing, 13·65mm.; extreme breadth of hind wing,
11·25mm..
The single fossil represented by von Heyden under the name of _Vanessa
vetula_, is preserved on a greasy, dark brown, thin and exceedingly
fragile sheet of “brown coal,” and is likely to become so affected by
weathering as to be almost or quite indistinguishable in the course
of time. Indeed it is excessively obscure at the present time, and no
fossil object I have ever studied has proved so difficult to decipher
as this. It represents an insect (Pl. III, fig. 12) lying upon its side
in a somewhat natural attitude (compare fig. 11), so that one can see
the whole of the under surface of the left hind wing, the costal quarter
of the under surface of the left fore wing, and a little more than a
quarter of the upper surface of the right fore wing, also of the costal
area; the thorax and head with the eyes, the denuded palpi, the partially
unrolled tongue and fragments of the legs in a confused medley may also
be seen, but there is no trace of the antennæ, nor of the right hind
wing (nor of the abdomen?). The left hind wing has an immaterial part
of its outer border removed, and a small portion of the outer border of
the left fore wing is also wanting, but the corresponding portion of the
right fore wing is present. The markings can only be made out by extreme
care, and a very meagre portion of the neuration, especially toward the
borders of the wings, by great patience and the closest examination; but
most of what can be seen of the neuration adds but very little to our
actual knowledge of the animal; it simply adds its testimony in the same
direction as other features of the object.
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