Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Prodryas

Prodryas
19th century engraving of Prodryas persephone, a fossil butterfly 
A version of this image appears in a book with the delightfully Victorian title Frail Children of the Air. Ironic, then, that this "child of the air" has become anything but frail in death, having been pressed and preserved in stone. On the original fossil, one can even see ghostly hints of veins, scales, and patterns on its wings.

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