60 FOSSIL BUTTERFLIES. 



In design (PL III, fig. 3) Thaites recalls none of the recent genera very 

 closely. In the fore wings it approaches Thais (PL III, fig. 4) rather than the 

 others, and in the hind wings some species of Parnassius (PL III, fig. 5). It has 

 none of the eccentric spots of Parnassius and a darker ground than any of the 

 modern types. It is wholly unprovided with the strongly marked crescentic spots 

 of Thais, but in the position, form and arrangement of the principal markings 

 rather recalls Archon. Excepting Eurycus and some species of Thais, no modern 

 genera resemble Thaites in the extension of a distinctive pattern upon the hind 

 wings to or nearly to the extremity of the cell. "Whether any of the markings 

 were accompanied by the brilliant spots often seen in Thais, Archon and Parnas- 

 sius cannot be determined, but we may presume that they were not, since in these 

 genera the markings are dark upon a lighter ground, while in Thaites they are 

 light upon a dark ground, a combination found among the Papilonid genera, 

 only in some of the swallow tails. 



In the markings of the abdomen, I do not know that we find anything parallel 

 to Thaites among the Parnassians, but among the neighboring Equites there are 

 similar examples of rows of small light spots on a dark ground. I have not been 

 able, however, to examine this point carefully. 



THAITES RUMINIANA HKKU MS. 

 Plate HI, figs. 1, 3, 6-10. 



Thaites lluminiana HERR, Climat pays tert., trad. Gaudin, 205 (1861) [absq. descr.] ; Sap., Ann. Sc. Nat. 

 [6], Bot., xv, 343 (1872) [ibid.]. 



The wings were evidently dark with light markings. On the fore wings the 

 first transverse stripe (PL III, fig. 3) extends from the subcostal nervure, midway 

 between its first divarication and the base of the wing, almost to the middle of the 

 basal two-thirds of the inner border; it is slender, nearly equal and straight, the 

 portion within the cell about four times as long as broad ; the second transverse 

 band is the largest, and lies midway between the first and the third, parallel to 

 them, reaching from the subcostal nervure almost to the inner border; it is straight 

 and equal, and the portion within the cell (which is half of the whole, although 



