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Prodryas

Prodryas persephone is an extinct species of brush-footed butterfly, known from a single specimen from the Chadronian-aged Florissant Shale Lagerstätte of Late Eocene Colorado. P. persephone is the first fossil butterfly to be found in North America, and is exquisitely well preserved. Its closest extant relatives are the mapwings and African admirals of the genera Hypanartia and Antanartia, respectively.

Significance
The type specimen, now held at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University, was the first fossil butterfly to be found in North America, and has been described as "possibly the best fossil butterfly specimen ever found". The appearance of a figure of Prodryas in Samuel Hubbard Scudder's book Frail Children of the Air influenced the paleontologist Frank M. Carpenter to embark on his career. Scudder exhibited the specimen at the Royal Entomological Society of London in December 1893. ==Description==
Description
The single known specimen of P. persephone is a compression fossil, discovered by the "homesteader turned naturalist" Charlotte Hill, in shale deposits of Late Eocene age of the Florissant Formation near Florissant, Colorado. The butterfly has a wing length of , and the specimen is complete, although the trailing edge of one hindwing was originally covered. Individual wing scales can be discerned in parts of the forewing. ==Taxonomy==
Taxonomy
Based on Charlotte Hill's specimen, Samuel Hubbard Scudder described the new genus and species Prodryas persephone in 1878, although the first figure only appeared in 1899. and may be even closer to Antanartia. ==References==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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