Melitaea

"Melithea" redirects here. For the octocoral genus, see Melithaea.

For the town of ancient Thessaly, see Melitaea (Thessaly).

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.

Melitaea
Adult male Melitaea arcesia chuana, a member of Melitaea sensu stricto
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Subfamily:	Nymphalinae
Tribe:	Melitaeini
Subtribe:	Melitaeina Newman, 1870
Genus:	Melitaea Fabricius, 1807
Type species
Papilio cinxia Linnaeus, 1758
Diversity
Some 85 species (but see text)
Synonyms
Athaliaeformia Verity, 1950 Cinclidia Hübner, [1819] Didymaeformia Verity, 1950 Lucina Rafinesque, 1815 (non Bruguière, [1797][verification needed]: preoccupied) Melilaea (lapsus) Melinaea Sodoffsky, 1837 (non Hübner, 1816: preoccupied) Melitea (lapsus; non Peron & Lesueur, 1810: preoccupied) Melithea (lapsus) Melithoea (lapsus) Melitoea (lapsus) Mellicta Billberg, 1820 Schoenis Hübner, [1819]

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

Adult Melitaea didymoides pekinensis, belonging to the large didyma group

Adult Melitaea solona evadne (minerva group)

Adult male Melitaea punica (phoebe group)

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 caucasogenita Verity, 1930 Melitaea centralasiae (Wnukowsky, 1929) (sometimes in M. menetriesi) 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