Data from: Aporia potanini Alphéraky (Lepidoptera, Pieridae), the oldest fossil record of extant butterfly species
Data files
Apr 01, 2026 version files 46.04 KB
-
README.md
2.19 KB
-
Supplementary_Takahashi_et_al.csv
43.84 KB
Abstract
The genus Aporia is a group of butterflies distributed throughout the Palearctic region. A fossil forewing from the caldera lake deposits of the Teragi Group (ca. 2.8–2.2 Ma: Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene) is described and assigned to the extant species Aporia potanini Alphéraky, 1889. The fossil provides direct evidence that Aporia potanini was historically distributed in Japan, at the eastern margin of the Palearctic, and that the species was present at least by the Late Pliocene. This represents the oldest known fossil record of this extant butterfly species.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.ns1rn8q70
Description of the data and file structure
The supplementary data from: Aporia potanini Alphéraky (Lepidoptera, Pieridae), the oldest fossil record of extant butterfly species by Yui Takahashi, Kotaro Saito and Hiroaki Aiba.
File: Supplementary_Takahashi_et_al.csv
The data contains measurements of forewings of extant Apporia species (A. acraea, A. agathon, A. ahura, A. belucha, A. bieti, A. bifurcata, A. crataegi, A. delavayi, A. extrema, A. genestieri, A. giacomazzoi, A. goutellei, A. harrietae, A. hastata, A. hippia, A. howarthi, A. illumina, A. japfuensis, A. joubini, A. kamei, A. kanekoi, A. kuangtungensis, A. larraldei, A. largeteaui, A. leucodice, A. lhamo, A. martineti, A. moltrechti, A. monbeigi, A. nabellica, A. nishimurai, A. oberthuri , A. omotoi, A. potanini, A. procris, A. signiana, A. soracta, A. tayiensis, A. tsinglingica, A. uedai, A. wolongensis, M. peloria).
The measurements are composed of forewing length (mm), forewing width (mm), L/W ratio, discal cell length (mm), discal cell width (mm), discal cell L/W ratio, and discal cell length /forewing length ratio.
The data also contains comparisons of these extant species with fossil specimens by 11 characters. 0 and 1 are used for character comparisons here (0=character does not apply; 1=character applies).
Each character is as follows: 1) forewing not small-sized (> 35 mm length), 2) forewing not slender (L/W ratio < 1.8), 3) discal cell long (cell length /forewing length ratio > 0.55), 4) discal cell not slender (cell L/W ratio < 3.2), 5) wing apex rounded, 6) wing termen almost straight, 7) vein R2+3 and stalk of veins R4 + R5 and M1 originating nearby, 8) vein M1 arising from the middle or more than half-length of R4+R5 stalk, 9) free parts of veins R4 and R5 not short, 10) vein M3 curved at base, 11) distance between origins of M3 and Cu1 about half or less than half that of Cu1 and Cu2.
Empty cells indicate missing data.