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
The illustration of von Heyden (Pl. III, fig. 16) is faulty in several
particulars, but this is not surprising when we consider the excessively
obscure nature of the fossil; it represents the insect as if the under
surface of both wings of one side were seen, the fore wing concealing a
portion of the hind; a break in the stone is taken for the outline of the
wing (just above the extremity of the costal border of the hind wing) and
the markings of the two front wings are blended into one; an abdomen is
represented and above it an outline of the inner border of the hind wing.
The fossil has at first sight this appearance, but I think this view is
erroneous, although on this point one may not speak with confidence, and
it is comparatively unimportant. It is remarkable, however, that von
Heyden, in his _description_, takes the same view of it as I have done. I
have not attempted to give the shading of the darker parts of the wing,
partly from its obscure nature, partly from a doubt whether they really
represent the original markings of the insect; for the basal half of the
under surface of the hind wings, where most of the dark mottling in Von
Heyden’s figure occurs, is usually devoid of any such variegation in
the insects of this group; they are almost always of a uniform grayish
or brownish hue. Von Heyden’s figure does not show the division of the
palpal joints.
Tertiaries of Rott, Rhenish Provinces of Germany. British Museum.
URBICOLÆ—ASTYCI.
PAMPHILITES SCUDDER.
This genus belongs to the Astyci and falls in the neighborhood of
Pansydia and Carystus, if we take as an illustration of the latter group
the _Hesperia Lucasii_ of Fabricius. The former genus has a male with a
discal dash, the latter without one. As the fossil species is represented
by a single fore wing of what is probably a female, it is impossible
to say into which category it would fall. The costal border (Pl. III,
fig. 18) is almost exactly straight throughout; next the base, however,
it is arched a little and it slopes slightly downward on the apical
fifth to a rather sharply defined apex; the outer margin is gently and
almost regularly convex, but with its greatest convexity a little above
the middle, and at its upper end is at right angles to the tip of the
costal margin; the lower angle is rounded off and the inner margin is
slightly sinuous, being hollowed in the middle; the wing is slightly more
than twice as long as broad. In all these respects it agrees far better
with Pansydia (Pl. III, fig. 15) than with Carystus (Pl. III, fig. 13).
Indeed, excepting in the greater length of the wing and the lack of any
change of direction in the outer border at the tip of the lowest median
nervule, the form of the wing scarcely differs from that of _Pansydia
Mesogramma_.
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