448 A. G. Butler— On a Fossil Butterfly . 



which correspond to this insect in size, and are formed " [found ?] 

 "at the same,, or nearly the same, geological horizon." 



Seeing that Mr. Scudder had made his views public, I felt that it 

 was time for me to take similar steps on my side. I therefore 

 availed myself of an early opportunity of again visiting Jermyn 

 Street, where, through the courtesy of the ofScers, I was enabled to 

 make a sketch of the impression in the Museum. I found it im- 

 possible to make a tracing of it, and therefore drew the whole by 

 measurement. This sketch is now produced on Plate XIX. Fig. 4 ; 

 and anybody can judge for himself whether or not it is more perfect 

 than that which I previously figured (see Geol. Mag. 1873, Vol. X. 

 p. 2. PL I. Fig. 2). 



In order to show the extent to which the Jermyn Street example 

 is deficient, I have restored it (Fig. 5), filling in the blanks from Mr. 

 Charlesworth's specimen. By comparing the latter with the wing 

 of Das7jop]ithalma (Fig. 1), and Cicada (Fig. 2), one may come to a 

 pretty accurate conclusion as to the group of insects to which it 

 ought to be referred. 



If one compares Fig. 2 (the wing of a Cicada) with Fig. 3 (the 

 pupa-case of a Cicada), it becomes a matter of doubt as to what 

 Mr. Scudder means when he speaks of " pupse of Cicadince, which 

 correspond to this insect in size." Not having seen Mr. Brodie's 

 specimens, I can only judge (from what I know of the relation in 

 size of the wing in the pupa-case to that of the perfect insect), that 

 they must be enormously too large for P. oolitica, and can have 

 nothing to do with it : possibly, however, the Secretary of the 

 Boston Society may have misrepresented what Mr. Scudder really 

 said, for in his letter to me he says — " of just about the size this 

 wing would require." 



That Lepidopterous insects did exist in the Lower Oolite is now 

 proved beyond doubt by the discovery of a second species, in the 

 Collection of Mr. James Parker, of Oxford. The following is an 

 extract from a letter received from that gentleman : — 



"It is only a part of the wing, and in rather poor condition com- 

 pared with Mr. Charlesworth's specimen I took mine to 



our annual Warwick Meeting, to show rather the imperfect state of 

 preservation which we must expect, even if Lepidoptera existed in 

 abundance, and argued upon their unpreservable nature as compared 

 with other remains. It so happens Westwood was talking to me a 

 day or so ago about another matter, and I showed the specimen to 

 him. He is going to draw out the probable lines of the veins where 

 the specimen ceases. There is a little difficulty about the two lower 

 veins, as they appear to curve round downwards, and not to meet, as 

 they ought to do ; still he has little doubt as to the Lepidopterous 

 character. (So in the same way he does not hold to Mr. Scudder's 

 opinion about Charlesworth's specimen. He has no doubt it is to 

 all intents and purposes Lepidopterous.)" 



When I have so great a champion on my side as the author of the 

 " Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera," and when I know that Mr. Bates 

 also (the author of our present recognized classification of butterflies) 



