abdita. Pamphilites abdita Scudder, 1875

Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae.

France, Bouches-du-Rhône, Aix-en-Provence; Chattian–Aquitanian, Late Oligocene–early Miocene.

Depositories: MVMF (holotype lost); MNHN (neotype: IPM B-24308).

Published figures: Scudder (1875: Pl. III, Figs. 14, 17, 18); Leestmans (1983: Figs 11, 12); Nel & Nel (1986: Fig. 1 a-b, Pl. I Fig. 1).

One forewing only. All veins originate from the cell, showing attribution of the fossil to the Hesperiidae; the character recurs in a few subordinate taxa in other superfamilies, but associated with different wing shape. Origin of M2 closer to M3 than to M1, within the Hesperiidae a unique but non-universal character of the Hesperiinae (Ackery et al. 1999). Wing shape and spotting agree with this subfamily.

Scudder thought it probable that the fossil wing belonged to a female, apparently only because he found a resemblance with Pansydia mesogramma Latreille (now in Atalopedes), a species of the Greater Antilles in which the male has a stigma. The fossil wing lacks any trace of a stigma, but so do the males of many Hesperiinae. Scudder also found a resemblance with Carystus lucasii (Fabricius), now Turesis lucas (Fabricius), a South American species. Therefore, he decided a South American relationship for this European fossil. Scudder remarked that R4 terminated on the termen close to the apex. I have not seen this condition in any Hesperiidae, R4 always terminating on the costa just or well before the apex.

The type of the fossil species seems to be lost, and Nel & Nel (1986) designated a neotype that seems to be conspecific with it. They correctly remarked that the venation and markings agree with numerous extant Hesperiinae species in the Old World and New World, so that a South American affinity of the fossil species is not obvious. If used for calibration, the fossil should be used as an estimated minimum age for the root of Hesperiinae.