Melitaea telona Fruhstorfer, 1908

Russell, Peter J. C. & Tennent, W. John, 2023, Notes on the Melitaea ornata Christoph, 1893, complex in the Levant (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae) including new synonymy and observations on lectotype designations for Melitaea phoebe dorae Graves, 1925, Zootaxa 5353 (3), pp. 276-284 : 282

Lectotype of Melitaea telona Fruhstorfer, 1908

The present authors designated a ♁ lectotype specimen for Melitaea phoebe telona Fruhstorfer, 1908 ( Tennent & Russell, 2023) in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris. As can be seen from an illustration ( Tennent & Russell, 2023: 133, fig. 1a), the abdomen was detached from the specimen before the designation was made, and was not dissected ( Fig. 5 ).

Benyamini(2023:86,fig.2)illustrated the♁genitalia,apparently of this specimen,labelled“6270– LECTOTYPE M. telona /Jerusalem, Palestine ( Israel), VDP = 0.740mm ”, although there is no mention of either ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘Israel’ on the labels of the lectotype ( Tennent & Russell, 2023: 133, fig. 1a); nor is there any acknowledgement of the MNHN. The Curator of Lepidoptera at MNHN acknowledged that the abdomen was loaned to Benyamini in 2022 (Rodolphe Rougerie, in litt. to the first author, 23 May 2023).

We believe that the number “6270” refers to a drawing by John Coutsis (see similar numbers in Oorschot & Coutsis (2014), accompanying genitalia drawings by Coutsis), as it is in the same numerical sequence as other numbered drawings figured by Benyamini (2023: 86, Fig. 2 ).

Figures

FIG. 5: Labels of the lectotype male of Melitaea phoebe telona Fruhstorfer, 1908, including separated abdomen (© Rodolphe Rougerie, MNHN).

FIG. 2: M. phoebe dorae paralectotype female [A], the labels found on this specimen’s pin on 5 July 2023 [B] and its correct labels present on 6 May 2019 [C].