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Dear Friends, I'd like to show ( i am not sure if its good forum-topic ) a scientific article about my find. Amazing Geometrid caterpillar from Baltic Amber. Now it's published on pretty serious place. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53734-w Enjoy ! <3 Artur Michalski

Exquisite fossils show butterflies appeared before there were flowers to pollinate By Ben Guarino, Washington Post, January 10, 2018 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/01/10/exquisite-fossils-show-butterflies-appeared-before-there-were-flowers-to-pollinate/ Finding the Oldest Fossils of Butterflies Using a Human Nose Hair By Nicholas St. Fleurjan, New York Times, January 10, 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/science/fossils-butterflies-moths.html 'Butterfly Tongues' Are More Ancient Than Flowers, Fossil Study Finds By Rebbeca Hersher, All Things Considered, January 10, 2018 https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/10/576763256/butterfly-tongues-are-more-ancient-than-flowers-fossil-study-finds In 'pond scum,' scientists find answers to one evolution's which-came- first cases, Boston College, January 10, 2018, https://phys.org/news/2018-01-pond-scum-scientists-evolution-which-came-first.html https://www.livescience.com/61394-oldest-butterfly-on-record.html The paper is: Timo J. B. van Eldijk, Torsten Wappler, Paul K. Strother, Carolien M. H. van der Weijst, Hossein Rajaei, Henk Visscher, and Bas van de Schootbrugge, 2018, A Triassic-Jurassic window into the evolution of Lepidoptera. Science Advances 10 Jan 2018: Vol. 4, no. 1, e1701568 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701568 http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/1/e1701568 Yours, Paul H.

Anyone able to help with ID on an interesting lepidopteran in Mexican amber from Chiapas (ca. 18-25 Ma)? Any/all thoughts much appreciated. It looked like a nymphalid (perhaps Eurema?) from merchant photos. However after getting the amber and holding it, I'm totally thrown off! There's no record of butterflies from continental Neotropical amber---and preservation is exceptional. Associated with the lep are the flowers, foliage, pollen and seeds of Hymenaea and at least 2 other legumes. Perhaps there's even an orchid hidden in there. (The max file limit's too small to include these hi-res photos...) Amber matrix: ca. 7 x 4 x 2 cm (oblong) Wingspan ca. 3.5 cm Length of wing at longest point ca. 2 cm (crude estimate) 'Unfortunately' (for ID) the amber heavily fluoresces a lovely blue/green: the foliage, pollen, flowers obscure the specimen's body on the (presumably) dorsal side. It's further complicated by refraction on what would be the ventral side. What looks like a dark antenna in the pics is actually just the a side-view of one of the flowering legume's pinnae. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a geometer moth, but what a remarkable fossil if it proves to be a skipper or true butterfly (nymphalid? lycaenid/riodinid?). Thanks all.

Hello, I am new to this forum. I'm an evolutionary ecologist, and used to working on living organisms, but this is so well-preserved it might as well be alive! What I'm nearly sure you're looking at is a fossilized pupating butterfly (chrysalis). You can see the silk lines it attached to the leaf, as well as much of the leaf itself. This would be what one would call a "pre-pupa", but it's already starting to look very chrysalis-ish. It certainly looks papilionid, perhaps lycaenid based on size and morphology? What strikes me is both the rarity and incredible beauty of this find if it is what I think it is. Any thoughts?? Is this the only chrysalis known in the fossil record? It's from Baltic amber, straight from the mines to an collector's hands (and now my own.) Looking forward to replies.