Jupiteria charon

Jong, Rienk De, 2017, Fossil butterflies, calibration points and the molecular clock (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), Zootaxa 4270 (1), pp. 1-63 : 21

charon . Jupiteria charon Scudder, 1889 .

Nymphalidae : Nymphalinae .

USA, Colorado , Florissant; late Priabonian, late Eocene.

Depository: USNM; originally it was in the private collection R.D. Lacoe, Pittston, Pennsylvania, USA (holotype, 2100), but the owner died soon after the American Civil War.

Published figures: Scudder (1889: Pl. LII, Figs 14, 15); Scudder's Fig. 15 was copied by Emmel et al. (1992: Fig. 1 /7).

Wings reasonably well preserved, seen from above, forewings largely overlapping hindwings, apical parts of forewing missing; head, thorax and abdomen present; markings hardly present at all, a few light spots along costa on forewing and hindwing. Cells of forewing and hindwing open (or at least, discocellular veins too weak to have left traces in the fossil). This places the fossil in Nymphalidae . Open cells are found in many Nymphalinae (in which subfamily Emmel et al. 1992, placed the fossil), as well as in some members of other subfamilies ( Ackery et al. 1999). Radial formula 1, 2+(3+(4+5)), with M1 originating halfway between R1 and R2. Usually R1 and R2 are free in Nymphalinae . A stalked R2, however, (by basad movement of M1) occurs in several groups, and an arrangement as in the fossil is common in what was called the “Melitaeen-Gruppe” by Schatz & Röber (1892). There is a remarkable similarity between the venation of Jupiteria charon , the Palaearctic genus Melitaea and the Mexican species Chlosyne ehrenbergii (Hübner) , which by the way is unspotted. How far, however, the similarity is due to synapomorphy cannot be decided at the moment, but for the time being it appears safe to assign the fossil to the Nymphalinae . Scudder (1889) could not find much similarity with any extant species and he supposed the fossil to be most closely related to the fossil species Lithopsyche styx Scudder and Prodryas persephone Scudder. I see, however, no phylogenetic evidence for this opinion. If used as a calibration point it should be at the root of the Nymphalinae .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Localities of fossil butterflies plotted ion a modern map. See Table 1 for further, complementary information.