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
ciliatus Sap. n’est pas une glume de Graminée, mais plutôt une bractée
ciliée de Peuplier.… Elle doit être probablement rapprochée d’une
empreinte … provenant des mêmes couches et qui se rapporte également au
genre Populus. Les organes voisins de ceux du Pop. Euphratica Oliv. dans
la nature actuelle dénotent l’existence, à l’époque des gypses d’Aix,
d’une espèce de Peuplier dont les feuilles sont encore inconnues, comme
celles de l’Alnus cryptophylla Sap., mais que M. Heer avait indiqué
d’avance, en se fondant sur l’observation d’un insecte fossile, le
Bythoscopus muscarius! Nouvelle preuve du secours que peuvent se prêter
en paléontologie les diverses branches de l’histoire naturelle.”
The single species from Rott, _Thanatites vetula_, is closely allied to
the modern Thanaos, whose species are numerous and feed upon a variety
of plants, belonging to the families Cruciferæ, Leguminosæ, Umbelliferæ,
Cupuliferæ, Betulaceæ and Salicaceæ. Most of the genera belonging to
its tribe feed upon Leguminosæ, and these are the usual food plants of
the species Thanaos also; whence it is probable that Thanatites had a
similar taste. Now in the very beds of Rott, in which this butterfly was
found, occur species of Betula, Salix and Populus, with numerous Querci
and no less than eleven genera of Leguminosæ, mostly belonging to the
Papilionaceæ; they are Templetonia (1 species), Robinia (2), Colutea
(1), Phaseolites (2), Sphinctolobium (1), Dalbergia (1), Hæmatoxylon
(2), Gleditschia (2), Cassia (3), Ceratonia (1), and Acacia (2). It is
probably among these, and perhaps with greatest probability among the
species of Hæmatoxylon and Gleditschia, that the food plant of Thanatites
must be sought. Should leaves be found, in which a portion is bent over
as if to form a nest, they should be submitted to the scrutiny of some
one familiar with the larval habitations of _Thanaos Tages_; and should
traces of silken fastenings be found in connection with them, or the
marks of nibbling at the edges, the plant to which they belong may be
considered with strong probability as the food of _Thanatites vetula_.
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