Archaeolycorea ferreirai

Jong, Rienk De, 2017, Fossil butterflies, calibration points and the molecular clock (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), Zootaxa 4270 (1), pp. 1-63 : 26

ferreirai . Archaeolycorea ferreirai Martins Neto, 1989

Fig. 7.

Family incertae sedis.

Tremembé Formation, Taubaté Basin, State of São Paulo, Brasil; (Rupelian)—(Aquitanian); late Oligoceneearly Miocene.

Depository: IGEO (holotype, no. 5618-I).

Published figure: Martins-Neto (1989: Fig. 4 A).

Part of a forewing of which the distal area, about 1/4 of the wing surface, is missing. The reconstruction of the termen in Fig. 4 A of the publication and with that, the shape of the wing, is, therefore, uncertain. The venation shows a most unusual arrangement: M1 branches off M2 shortly before the middle of the latter. In many butterfly genera (particularly in Pieridae ) M1 branches off R5, but I have not yet found such an arrangement illustrated in any extant butterfly genus. It could be an incorrect interpretation of the fossil, but apart from being clear in the figure, it is also explicitly described so in the text. The remainder part of the venation is not helpful. Since it is not clear in the figure where exactly is the distal end of the discoidal cell, either R3 and R4+5 have a common stem (an arrangement commonly found in butterflies), or R3 is separate and R4 and R5 have a common stem, an unusual arrangement in butterflies, but at least found in Papilio antimachus Drury from the Afrotropics. In summary, the taxonomic position of this fossil is unclear and the suggestion implied by the name that it is in the ancestral line of the extant genus Lycorea ( Nymphalidae , Danainae ) is not supported by evidence.

Figures

FIGURES 3 – 4. Wing venation of (A) Pareronia Bingham, 1907 (Pieridae), and (B) Hasora Moore, 1881 (Hesperiidae). See text for explanation.