Melitaea phoebe var. ornata, Christoph, 1893

Russell, Peter J. C., Lukhtanov, Vladimir A. & Tennent, W. John, 2022, Reassessment of the status of some European and Asian Melitaea taxa described as subspecies of Melitaea phoebe ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), with designations of lectotypes where appropriate (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Zootaxa 5141 (1), pp. 25-38 : 28

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5141.1.2
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F1B8B140-4A7C-4AAA-97C6-A0DAA259C8E3
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6580824
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/DB6B87B0-FFFB-FFE5-E1FD-0439FA32F9CA
treatment provided by	Plazi (2022-05-24 15:34:29, last updated 2024-11-26 04:56:38)
scientific name	Melitaea phoebe var. ornata
status

Treatment

M. phoebe var. ornata Christoph, 1893 View in CoL

[TL: c irca ‘Guberli’, promontorium uralensium australium (Guberlya, Southern Urals, Orenburg Province, Russian Federation)] separated from M. phoebe simultaneously by Russell et al. (2005), under the name emipunica Verity 1919 , and Varga et al. (2005), under the name ogygia Fruhstorfer, 1908 . A lectotype ( Figs 9A, B, C View FIGURES 7–11 ) selected by Lvovsky (Anikin et al. 2017: 521) demonstrates clearly the wing and antennal characteristics of M. ornata . Unfortunately van Oorschot & Coutsis (2014: 60) referred to ‘ two male syntypes’ and placed the taxon ornata as a subspecies of M. phoebe . Their figures (Plate 13, figs 2 & 3), purporting to be ‘ ♂ syntypes from Zoologisches Museum der Humboldt Universität, Berlin’ are clearly females; all the figured specimens show the characters typical of M. ornata . Most authors now accept this taxon to be a species distinct from M. phoebe ( Tshikolovets 2011: 498; Lafranchis et al. 2015: 468). Some authors have used different names for the species (see Russell & Tennent 2016), whilst others continue to consider all M. phoebe group taxa to be conspecific ( Kudrna et al., 2015: 379). However, a large set of molecular and morphological data unequivocally indicate that M. ornata and M. phoebe are different species, which are found sympatrically in a number of localities ( Tóth et al., 2014, 2016, 2017).

References

Christoph, H. (1893) Lepidoptera nova faunae Palaearcticae. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift ' Iris ', 6, 86 - 89.

Fruhstorfer, H. (1908) Neue Argynnis und Melitaea. Internationale Entomologische Zeitschrift, 1, 310.

Kudrna, O., Pennstorfer, J & Lux, K. (2015) Distribution Atlas of European Butterflies and Skippers. Wissenschsftlicher PEKS, Schwanfeld, Germany, 632 pp.

Lafranchis, T., Jutzeler, D., Guillosson, J-Y., Kan, P. & Kan, B. (2015) La Vie des Papillons, Ecologie, Biologie et Comportement des Rhopaloceres de France. Diatheo, Paris, 751 pp.

Russell, P. J. C., Gascoigne-Pees, M., Pateman, J. E. & Tennent, W. J. (2005) Melitaea emipunica (Verity, 1919) stat. nov.: a hitherto unrecognised butterfly species from Europe (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Entomologist's Gazette, 56, 263 - 268.

Russell, PJ. C. & Tennent, W. J. (2016) A synonymic list of names associated with western Palaearctic Melitaea phoebe (Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775) species group taxa M. phoebe; M. punica Oberthur, 1876; M. ornata Christoph, 1893) (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Nota Lepidopterologica, 39 (1), 27 - 56. https: // doi. org / 10.3897 / nl. 39.5929

Toth, J. P., Bereczki, J., Varga, Z., Rota, J., Sramko, G. & Wahlberg, N. (2014) Relationships within the Melitaea phoebe species group (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): new insights from molecular and morphometric information. Systematic Entomology, 39, 749 - 757. https: // doi. org / 10.1111 / syen. 12083

Toth, J. P., Varga, Z. & Bereczki, J. (2016) Long-term survival and diversification of an endemic Melitaea species in mountains of Iran and adjacent areas. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 54 (2), 106 - 115. https: // doi. org / 10.1111 / jzs. 12122

Toth, J. P., Varga, Z., Verovnik, R., Wahlberg, N., Varadi, A. & Bereczki, J. (2017) Mito-nuclear discordance helps to reveal the phylogeographic patterns of Melitaea ornata (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 121, 267 - 281. https: // doi. org / 10.1093 / biolinnean / blw 037

Tshikolovets, V. V. (2011) Butterflies of Europe & the Mediterranean area. Tshikolovets Publications, Pardubice, Czech Republic, 544 pp.

Van Oorschot, H. & Coutsis, J. G. (2014) The genus Melitaea Fabricius, 1807 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Nymphalinae) Taxonomy and systematics with special reference to the male genitalia. Tshikolovets publications, Pardubice, Czech Republic, 360 pp.

Varga, Z., Szabo, S. & Kozma, P. (2005) Melitaea ogygia kovacsi Varga 1967 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in the Pannonian region: taxonomy, bionomy, conservation biology. In: Kuhn, E., Feldmann, R., Thomas, J. & Settele, J. (Eds.), Studies on the Ecology and Conservation of Butterflies in Europe, 1: general concepts and case studies, pp. 65 - 68. [Conference Proceedings, UFZ Leipzig - Halle, December 2005]

Verity, R. (1919) Seasonal Polymorphism and Races of some European Grypocera and Rhopalocera. Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation 31 (2), 26 - 31, (3), 43 - 48, (5), 87 - 89, (7), 121 - 129, (10), 178 - 184, (11), 193 - 201.

Figures

FIGURES 7–11. 7, Lectotype of Melitaea phoebe sibina Alphéraky, 1881. 8, Melitaea phoebe ab. tatara Krulikovsky, 1891. 9, Lectotype of Melitaea phoebe ornata Christoph, 1893. 10, Lectotype of Melitaea phoebe uralensis Krulikovsky, 1897 (= ufensis Krulikovsky 1902). 11, Lectotype of Melitaea phoebe var. tungusa Herz, 1899. Figs 7, 9, 11 © V.A. Lukhtanov. Figs 8, 10 © expired. A = upperside, B = underside, C = labels on specimen pin.