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
unimportant.
The Danai, to which the fourth species from Aix (_Coliates Proserpina_)
belongs, feed almost exclusively upon Leguminosæ, and these have recently
been found in great abundance at Aix. Count de Saporta enumerates one
species each of ?Trifolium, Caragana, Ervites, Sophora, Micropodium,
Cercis and Gleditschia, two of Phaseolites and six of Cæsalpinites,
belonging to the Papilionaceæ, besides nine Acacias and a Mimosa of the
Mimoseæ, and four species of uncertain relations; making a series larger
than he has found in any other family.[AI]
Of these, two species of Phaseolites, one of Sophora, eight of Acacia
and two of Leguminosites are specified as coming from the lower beds,
where Coliates itself is found. But Coliates is most closely allied, as
we have said, to a group of Indian forms, and the food plants of their
caterpillars is almost wholly unknown. A species of Delias, however,
to which genus Coliates has been specially compared, is stated to
feed, not upon a leguminous plant, but upon Dioscorea, one of the Yam
family; and the presence in Aix of a species of a closely allied group,
_Smilax rotundiloba_ Sap., is announced by Count de Saporta. It is not
improbable, therefore, that _Smilax rotundiloba_ was the food-plant of
the larva of _Coliates Proserpina_.[AJ]
The fifth Aix species is _Thaites Ruminiana_. It is most nearly allied
to Thais of the present day, though it bears certain relations, as we
have seen, to neighboring genera. Thais feeds principally at least
upon Aristolochia[AK] and so, too, do Ornithoptera, Archon and some
genera of swallow-tails; indeed, this seems to be a favorite food-plant
with insects of this character. Parnassius, however, feeds on Sedum,
Telephium, Sempervivum and Corydalis, especially on the first-named, one
of the Crassulaceæ; but nothing very closely allied to this is specified
by Saporta from Aix; neither, also is Aristolochia, but it has been
found not only in Radoboj[AL] in the Mayencian, but also, according to
Heer, at Hohe Rhonen in Switzerland, which belongs to the Aquitanian,
and has at least one plant (_Laurus primigenia_ Ung.) in common with
Aix. It seems, therefore, highly probable that either _Aristolochia
nervosa_ Heer, _A. Aesculapi_ Heer, or a distinct species of the genus
will yet be discovered at Aix,[AM] and may then be considered, as with
little question, the food-plant of _Thaites Ruminiana_. If it be deemed
hazardous to venture such an opinion, attention is called to the two
following passages; the first is from the introduction to Heer’s paper on
the fossil insects of Aix:[AN] “Dass indessen auch Weiden oder Pappeln
[Populus] sich vorhanden, dürften der Bythoscopus muscarius und die
Aphrophora spumifera [Homoptera] anzeigen, deren analoge lebende Arten
besonders auf den Blättern und Zweigen dieser Bäume sich umhertreiben.”
The second is a note in the errata to the translation of Heer’s work on
the Climate and Vegetation of the Tertiaries[AO] by Gaudin: “Le Poacites
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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