THE FIRST AIR-BREATHERS. 



149 



an example of the magnitude and perfection to wliich that 

 tribe attained in the age of the Solenhofen state ; though 

 V/eyenburgh, who describes it, fancies that he sees evidence 

 that it may, unlike any modern moths, have been provided 

 with a sting. The most perfect and beautiful fossil butterfly 

 known to me is that represented in Fig. 131, from a photo- 

 graph kindly given to me by Mr. Scudder. It is from the 



Fig. 130. — A Jurassic Sphinx-moth {Sphinx Snellen', Weyenburgh). 



Tertiary rocks of Western America, and is laid out in stone 

 as neatly as if prepared by an entomologist, while its preserva- 

 tion is so perfect that even the microscopic scales on the wings 

 can be made out. It belongs to one of the highest types of 

 modern butterflies, that to which the VanesscE belong, but with 

 some points of structure pointing to the lower group of the 

 "Skippers" {Hesperiadce) . Scudder remarks that ->vhile the 

 fore-wings resemble 'hose of the former group, the hind-wings. 



