''Lithodryas'' is a prehistoric genus of butterflies in the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterf ...

. It was introduced as a replacement for

Samuel Hubbard Scudder Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects ...

's genus ''Lithopsyche'', which is invalid as a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...

, as another fossil lepidopteran genus had been described under the same name shortly before Scudder established his genus. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

was found in Latest Eocene-aged deposits at Florissant.

References

† Eocene insects Fossil Lepidoptera Prehistoric insects of North America † {{paleo-Lepidoptera-stub