UNDETEEMINED FORMS. 87 



In the earliest accounts that we have found, inchiding 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 afibrd no additional aid ; but those of Sendel possibly repre- 

 sent, 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,^ in his enumera- 

 tion of amber insects, gives under the Lepidoptera forty specimens referable to 

 Tineaj and Tortrices, and besides these "mehre Kaupen, siimmtlich, wie es scheint, 

 Schildraupen, denen des Papilio W. album ahnlich." The probable nature of the 

 ancient forest yielding amber renders it unlikely that any butterflies in their per- 

 fect state would be found in it. As a rule, butterflies are eminently fond of the 

 light. This has already been remarked by Menge : ^ — " Das fehlen groszerer schmet- 

 terlinge im bemstein 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 oniscifonn larvae, 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 enu- 

 merations 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 lai'ge butterflies 

 in amber, but that these proved to be falsifications, recent European insects like 

 Pieris rapce, 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 



•Arbeit. Schle-lxcli. Ge»elUch. Vaterl. KiilCnr, ISSt, 92-3. ' Piogramm Petrischiile Diin/.ig, 18.55-56, 4°, p. 30. 



