A new genus and species of emperor butterfly (Nymphalidae, Apaturinae) is described based on an exceptionally well-preserved specimen from the “Calcaire de Campagne Calavon” limestone of southern France (early Oligocene age, approximately 34–28 Mya). Most parts of the right wings and upper parts of the left wings are visible, with complete venation and even wing patterns. The head and thorax are clearly visible from both sides, and most of the abdomen is preserved. Apaturoides monikae gen. et sp. nov., is compared to all genera of the subfamily and based on the form of the wings and venation is considered most similar to species of Apatura, today occurring widely in Palearctic, excluding North Africa and Middle East. This discovery provides an important calibration point based on direct fossil evidence for estimating relationships and divergence estimates among emperor butterflies.

Key words: Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea, Nymphalidae, Apaturinae, new genus, new species, Oligocene, France.

Hossein Rajaei [hossein.rajaei@smns-bw.de; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3940-3734], State Museum of Natural History, Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1-3, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany. Torsten Wappler [Torsten.Wappler@hlmd.de; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1592-0988], Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Friedensplatz 1, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany; Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology (BIOB), Section of Palaeontology, Nussallee 8, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Rienk de Jong [Rienk.deJong@naturalis.nl; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2052-5993], Department of Entomology, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. Niklas Wahlberg [Niklas.wahlberg@biol.lu.se; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1259-3363], Department of Biology, Lund University, 223 62 Lund, Sweden. Michael S. Engel [mengel@amnh.org; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3067-077X], Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10 024, USA.