Internet Archive's in-browser bookreader "theater" requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

New data on Miocene butterflies in Dominican amber (Lepidoptera, Riodinidae and Nymphalidae) with the description of a new nymphalid

by: Peñalver, Enrique

Publication date: 2006

Usage: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Topics: Voltinia dramba, Dynamine alexae, Amber fossils, Butterflies, Fossil, Insects, Fossil, Paleontology, Paleoecology, Taphonomy, Amber fossils -- Dominican Republic, Butterflies, Fossil -- Dominican Republic, Insects, Fossil -- Dominican Republic, Paleontology -- Miocene -- Dominican Republic, Paleoecology -- Miocene -- Dominican Republic, Paleontology -- Dominican Republic, Paleoecology -- Dominican Republic, Taphonomy -- Dominican Republic

Publisher: New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History

Collection: americanmuseumnaturalhistory; biodiversity

Contributor: American Museum of Natural History Library

Language: English

Rights: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/permissions

Rights-holder: American Museum of Natural History Library

Volume: no. 3519

17 p. : 26 cm

A new, virtually complete and well-preserved female specimen of Voltinia dramba Hall, Robbins, and Harvey, 2004 (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) provides new data on this fossil species, and a new fossil species of the Recent genus of Nymphalidae Dynamine Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) is described as Dynamine alexae n.sp., on the basis of a male specimen. The two species are preserved in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic. Dynamine alexae n.sp. represents the first adult nymphalid butterfly found as a fossil in amber. The four taxa of butterflies found up to the present in Dominican amber indicate post-Miocene extinctions in Hispaniola, probably caused by insularization. The butterflies found in Dominican amber do not support a hypothesis of a Gondwanan origin for many butterfly tribes and subfamilies as previously proposed; we conclude that this hypothesis is implausible based on the age of the butterflies as inferred from the fossil record. Some palaeoecologic and taphonomic questions are discussed

Title from caption

"July 31, 2006."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-17)

Abstract: A new, virtually complete and well-preserved female specimen of Voltinia dramba Hall, Robbins, and Harvey, 2004 (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) provides new data on this fossil species, and a new fossil species of the Recent genus of Nymphalidae Dynamine Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) is described as Dynamine alexae n.sp., on the basis of a male specimen. The two species are preserved in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic. Dynamine alexae n.sp. represents the first adult nymphalid butterfly found as a fossil in amber. The four taxa of butterflies found up to the present in Dominican amber indicate post-Miocene extinctions in Hispaniola, probably caused by insularization. The butterflies found in Dominican amber do not support a hypothesis of a Gondwanan origin for many butterfly tribes and subfamilies as previously proposed; we conclude that this hypothesis is implausible based on the age of the butterflies as inferred from the fossil record. Some palaeoecologic and taphonomic questions are discussed.