| +--------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------+ In the earliest accounts that we have found, including all those in the last century, the generic term Papilio was used for all Lepidoptera, and therefore we cannot be certain whether butterflies or moths are meant. Hueber’s plates, even, are so inferior that they afford no additional aid; but those of Sendel possibly represent, as we have noticed in the Bibliography at the commencement of this memoir, the early stages of butterflies preserved in amber. The only other direct references to butterflies preserved in amber are the following: Gravenhorst,[AV] in his enumeration of amber insects, gives under the Lepidoptera forty specimens referable to Tineæ and Tortrices, and besides these “mehre Raupen, sämmtlich, wie es scheint, Schildraupen, denen des Papilio W. album ähnlich.” The probable nature of the ancient forest yielding amber renders it unlikely that any butterflies in their perfect state would be found in it. As a rule, butterflies are eminently fond of the light. This has already been remarked by Menge:[AW]—“Das fehlen gröszerer Schmetterlinge im bernstein deutet auf einen finstern undurchdringlichen urwald, den die kinder des lichts gemieden haben.” Yet as some Theclas do feed upon coniferous trees, it is not impossible that the onisciform larvæ, referred to by Gravenhorst, may belong to this group. As far as we can discover, no further reference is made to them, excepting by Giebel and Bronn in some of their lists and enumerations of fossil insects. The writings of Berendt, Menge and others, all bear testimony to the great rarity of Lepidoptera in amber, and most of those which have been discovered belong to the lowest two families, above referred to. Dr. Hagen informs me that he has himself seen specimens of large butterflies in amber, but that these proved to be falsifications, recent European insects like _Pieris rapæ_, etc., having been enclosed between slabs of amber, which were then fastened together and the edges roughened, all in so clever a manner that one would not suspect them to be spurious. These specimens were manufactured many years ago, and it is not impossible that it is to one of them that Hope refers in 1836, as found in the collection of Mr. Strong, though why he should quote Berendt as authority I cannot discover. Heer, in the introduction to the lepidopterous portion of his “Insektenfauna der Tertiärgebilde von Œningen,” says (p. 175): “Karg erwähnt zwar eines sehr schönen Œninger-Schmetterlings, der nach Zürich gekommen sein soll. Allein hier findet sich dieser nicht und die Angabe verliert noch mehr an Werth, wenn wir berücksichtigen, dass Karg das Thier nicht selbst gesehen hat.” Karg’s memoir in the “Denkschriften der Schwäbischen Gesellschaft der Aerzte und Naturforscher,” T. I., I have been unable to examine.