Melitaea

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Panorpida
Cladus: Amphiesmenoptera
Ordo: Lepidoptera
Subordo: Glossata
Cladus: Coelolepida
Cladus: Myoglossata
Cladus: Neolepidoptera
Infraordo: Heteroneura
Cladus: Eulepidoptera
Cladus: Ditrysia
Cladus: Apoditrysia
Cladus: Obtectomera
Superfamilia: Papilionoidea

Familia: Nymphalidae
Subfamilia: Nymphalinae
Tribus: Melitaeini
Subtribus: Melitaeina
Genus: Melitaea
Species:
M. abyssinica – M. acentria – M. acraeina – M. aetherie – M. agar – M. ala – M. alraschid – M. ambrisia – M. amoenula – M. arcesia – M. arduinna – M. asteria – M. athalia – M. avinovi – M. balba – M. beltona – M. cassandra – M. casta – M. chitralensis – M. chuana – M. cinxia – M. collina – M. consulis – M. danieli – M. deserticola – M. devyatkini – M. diamina – M. didyma – M. didymina – M. didymoides – M. eberti – M. elisabethae – M. enarea – M. fergana – M. gabrielae – M. higginsi – M. infernalis – M. interrupta – M. jitka – M. kotshubeji – M. kuchi – M. kunlunensis – M. latonigena – M. leechi – M. ludmilla – M. lunulata – M. meherparvari – M. minerva – M. mixta – M. nadezhdae – M. ninae – M. oorschoti – M. ornata – M. pallas – M. pavlitzkajana – M. permuta – M. persea – M. phoebe – M. protomedia – M. pseudoala – M. punica – M. romanovi – M. sarvistana – M. saxatilis – M. scotosia – M. sebastiani – M. shandura – M. solona – M. sultanensis – M. sutschana – M. tangigharuensis – M. telona – M. trivia – M. turanica – M. varia – M. zagrosi
Name

Melitaea Fabricius, 1807
References

Achtelik, G., 1999: Vier neue arten aus der Melitaea sultanensis-Gruppe (Staudinger, 1886) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Atalanta 30 (1-4): 63–86.
Carbonell, F., 2007: Melitaea meherparvari n. sp. du sud-ouest de l'Iran (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, 112(3): 334.Reference page.
Churkin, S.V. ; Kolesnichenko, K.A. & Tuzov, V.K., 2000: Revision of the Melitaea asteroida species-group (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) with new taxa descriptions. Helios, 1: 61–87.
Churkin, S.V. ; Pletnev, V.A. & V.N. Tremasov, 2012: A new subspecies of Melitaea alraschid Higgins,1941 from Peter the Great Range (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Atalanta 43 (1-2): 118–119.
Eckweiler, W. 2008. Melitaea oorschoti sp. n., eine neue Art der Gattung Melitaea Fabricius, 1807 aus Mittelasien (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo NF 28(3-4): 109–110. Full article zobodat (PDF). Reference page.
Eckweiler, W. 2008. Melitaea tangigharuensis de Freina, 1980 in Iran (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo NF 29(1-2): 93–96. Reference page.
Huang, R.-X. & Murayama, S.-i. 1992. Butterflies of Xinjiang Province, China. Tyô to Ga 43(1): 1–22. Full article (PDF). Reference page.
Kolesnichenko, K.A. 2018. A New Melitaea Species from the didyma-Group from Southern Mongolia, with Notes on the Intraspecific Structure of M. didymoides Eversmann, 1847 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Entomological Review 98(9): 1329-1341. (Original Russian Text published in Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 2018, 97(12): 1485–1497). Reference page.
Kolesnichenko, K.A., Churkin, S.V. & Berdiev, R.K. 2011. A review of the East Palaearctic taxa of the Melitaea didyma (Esper, [1779])-group. Part II. Neue entomologische nachrichten 67: 257–278. Full article (PDF). Reference page.
Korb, S.K., 2010: A new subspecies of Melitaea kotschubeji Sheljuzhko, 1929 from Suusamyr valley in Kyrghyzstan (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Eversmannia 21-22: 28–29.
Korb, S.K. & Bolshakov, L.V. 2011. A catalogue of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoformes) of the former USSR. Second edition, reformatted and updated. Eversmannia, Supplement 2. Abstract. Reference page.
Kudrna, O & Z. Mracek, 1994: A new species of the genus Melitaea Fabricius, 1807, from Tibet (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Entomologist's Gazette 45: 251–253.
Kuznetsov, G.V., 2011: Some data about biology Melitaea telona Fruhstorfer, 1908 and Melitaea robertsi uvarovi Gorbunov, 1995 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) on Volgograd region. Caucasian Entomological Bulletin, 7 (1): 83–84. Abstract: [1]
Lukhtanov, V.A. 1999. Neue taxa und synonyma zentralasiatischer Tagfalter (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Atalanta 30(1/4): 135–150. PDF. Reference page.
Lukhtanov, V.A. 2017. A new species of Melitaea from Israel, with notes on taxonomy, cytogenetics, phylogeography and interspecific hybridization in the Melitaea persea complex (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Comparative cytogenetics 11(2): 325–327. DOI: 10.3897/CompCytogen.v11i2.12370 Open access. Reference page.
Russell, P. & Bartolozzi, L. 2019. A revisit to the Melitaea taxon nigrogygia Verity, 1939 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and designation of a Lectotype. Zootaxa 4603(3): 592–596. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4603.3.13 Reference page.
Tóth, J.P., Bereczki, J., Varga, Z., Rota, J., Sramkó, G. & Wahlberg, N. 2014. Relationships within the Melitaea phoebe species group (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): new insights from molecular and morphometric information. Systematic entomology 39(4): 749–757. DOI: 10.1111/syen.12083 Reference page.
Weiss, D. & Major, V. 2000. A new species of the genus Melitaea (Fabricius, 1807) from Iran (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Atalanta 31(1-2): 123-128. full article Zobodat (PDF). Reference page.
Wyatt, C.W., 1961: Additions to the Ropalocera of Afghanistan with descriptions of new species and subspecies. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 15 (1): 1–18. Full article: [2]

Melitaea is a genus of brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). They are here placed in the tribe Melitaeini of subfamily Nymphalinae; some authors elevate this tribe to subfamily rank.

As delimited here, Melitaea includes the genus Mellicta, making the subtribe Melitaeina monotypic (but see below). For long, it was believed that Mellicta was a junior objective synonym of Melitaea, sharing the same type species (the Glanville fritillary, M. cinxia). This was in error, however; the type species of Mellicta is actually the heath fritillary (M. athalia), making the two taxa junior subjective synonyms and thus eligible to be separated again. However, several other taxa are in fact objective synonyms (or at least have type specimens belonging to the same biological species) of Melitaea and Mellicta – Schoenis and the preoccupied Lucina and Melinaea for the former, Athaliaeformia for the latter.[1]

Taxonomy
As noted above, Mellicta is considered to be a subgenus of Melitaea for the time being. The rationale is that even though the Melitaeina may not be monotypic, they do not seem to consist of just two genera (Melitaea and Mellicta) either, and recognition of Mellicta appears to leave Melitaea paraphyletic; consequently, other lineages would need elevation to distinct genus status also. As long as it is not fully known which species groups and/or subgenera warrant recognition as full genera, they are all retained in the present genus.
Species

In the following list, species-group/subgenus affiliation and type species are annotated. In the sensu lato circumscription used here, Melitaea contains almost ninety species. Most being assignable to one of the five groups/subgenera, there are a few that cannot be clearly placed with one of these at present:[2]

didyma/Didymaeformia group

Melitaea abyssinica Oberthür, 1909
Melitaea acraeina (Staudinger, 1886)
Melitaea agar Oberthür, 1888
Melitaea ala Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea alraschid Higgins, 1941
Melitaea ambrisia Higgins, 1935
Melitaea arduinna (Esper, 1783) – Freyer's fritillary
Melitaea athene Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea avinovi Sheljuzhko, 1914
Melitaea casta (Kollar, [1848])
Melitaea chitralensis Moore, 1901
Melitaea deserticola Oberthür, 1909 – desert fritillary
Melitaea didyma (Esper, 1778) – spotted fritillary, red-band fritillary (type of Didymaeformis)
Melitaea didymina Staudinger, 1895
Melitaea didymoides Eversmann, 1847
Melitaea enarea Fruhstorfer, 1917
Melitaea fergana Staudinger, 1882
Melitaea infernalis Grum-Grshimailo, 1891
Melitaea interrupta Kolenati, 1846
Melitaea jitka Weiss & Major, 2000
Melitaea kotshubeji Sheljuzhko, 1929
Melitaea latonigena Eversmann, 1847
Melitaea lunulata Staudinger, 1901
Melitaea lutko Evans, 1932
Melitaea meherparvari Carbonell, 2007
Melitaea mimetica Higgins, 1940
Melitaea mixta Evans, 1912
Melitaea ninae Sheljuzhko, 1935
Melitaea persea Kollar, [1850]
Melitaea pseudoala Sheljuzhko, 1928
Melitaea robertsi Butler, 1880 – Baluchi fritillary
Melitaea romanovi Grum-Grshimailo, 1891
Melitaea sarvistana Wiltshire, 1941
Melitaea saxatilis Christoff, 1876[verification needed]
Melitaea shandura Evans, 1924
Melitaea sutschana Staudinger, 1892
Melitaea trivia Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775 – lesser spotted fritillary, desert fritillary
Melitaea yuenty Oberthür, 1888

cinxia/Melitaea sensu stricto group

Melitaea amoenula C. & R.Felder, [1867]
Melitaea arcesia Bremer, 1861 – blackvein fritillary
Melitaea balbita Moore, 1874
Melitaea bellona Leech, [1892]
Melitaea cinxia (Linnaeus, 1758) – Glanville fritillary (type of Melitaea)
Melitaea diamina (Lang, 1789) – false-heath fritillary
Melitaea jezabel Oberthür, 1888
Melitaea protomedia Ménétriés, 1859
Melitaea sindura Moore, 1865

minerva group

Melitaea asteroidea Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea balba Evans, 1912
Melitaea elisabethae Avinoff, 1910
Melitaea ludmilla Churkin, Kolesnichenko & Tuzov, 2000
Melitaea minerva Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea pallas Staudinger, 1886
Melitaea solona Alphéraky, 1881
Melitaea sultanensis Staudinger, 1886
Melitaea turanica Erschoff, 1874

phoebe/Cinclidia group

Melitaea aetherie (Hübner, 1826) – aetherie fritillary
Melitaea collina Lederer, 1861
Melitaea consulis Wiltshire, 1941
Melitaea gina Higgins, 1941
Melitaea kuchi Wyatt, 1961
Melitaea phoebe Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775 – knapweed fritillary (type of Cinclidia)
Melitaea pseudosibina Alberti, 1969
Melitaea punica Oberthür, 1876
Melitaea scotosia Butler, 1878
Melitaea sibina Alphéraky, 1881
Melitaea telona Christoph, 1893 (formerly in M. phoebe or M. punica)
Melitaea turkmanica Higgins, 1940

Mellicta group
Adult Melitaea centralasiae of the Mellicta group

Melitaea alatauica Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea ambigua Ménétriés in Schrenck, 1859
Melitaea asteria (Freyer, 1828) – little fritillary
Melitaea athalia (Rottemburg, 1775) – heath fritillary (type of Mellicta)
Melitaea aurelia Nickerl, 1850 – Nickerl's fritillary
Melitaea britomartis Assmann, 1847 – Assmann's fritillary
Melitaea centralasiae (Wnukowsky, 1929) (sometimes in M. menetriesi)
Melitaea caucasogenita Verity, 1930
Melitaea deione Geyer, 1832 – Provençal fritillary

Melitaea menetriesi Caradja, 1895
Melitaea nevadensis Oberthür, 1904
Melitaea parthenoides Keferstein, 1851 – European meadow fritillary, meadow fritillary
Melitaea plotina Bremer, 1861
Melitaea rebeli Wnukowsky, 1929
Melitaea varia (Meyer-Dür, 1851) – Grisons fritillary
Melitaea westsibirica (Dubatolov, 1998)

Incertae sedis

Melitaea kunlunensis Kudrna & Mracek, 1994
Melitaea oorschoti Eckweiler, 2008
Melitaea paludani Clench & Shoumatoff, 1956
Melitaea tangigharuensis de Freina, 1980
Melitaea wiltshirei Higgins, 1941

Footnotes

Pitkin & Jenkins (2004ab), FE (2009), and see references in Haaramo (2010, 2011)

See references in Haaramo (2010, 2011)

References
Fauna Europaea (FE) (2009): Melitaea. Version 2.1, 22 December 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004a): Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species – Melitaea. Version of 5 November 2004. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004b): Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species – Mellicta. Version of 5 November 2004. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
Savela, Markku (2009): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms – Mellicta. Version of 17 August 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
Savela, Markku (2010): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms – Melitaea. Version of 2 May 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2011.