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.Pitkin & Jenkins (2004ab), FE (2009), and see references in Haaramo (2010, 2011)
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:See references in Haaramo (2010, 2011) <div float="left">
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, ) 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, Melitaea pseudoala Sheljuzhko, 1928 Melitaea robertsi Butler, 1880 – Baluchi fritillary Melitaea romanovi Grum-Grshimailo, 1891 Melitaea sarvistana Wiltshire, 1941 Melitaea saxatilis Christoff, 1876 Melitaea shandura Evans, 1924 Melitaea sutschana Staudinger, 1892 Melitaea trivia Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775 – lesser spotted fritillary, desert fritillary Melitaea yuenty Oberthür, 1888cinxia/Melitaea sensu stricto group Melitaea amoenula C. & R.Felder, Melitaea arcesia Bremer, 1861 – blackvein fritillary Melitaea balbita Moore, 1874 Melitaea bellona Leech, 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, 1865minerva 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, 1874phoebe/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 ornata Christoph, 1893 (formerly in M. phoebe or M. punica, here as broad concept including telona Fruhstorfer, 1908, klili Benyamini, 2021, etc.) 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 turkmanica Higgins, 1940
</div>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
Footnotes
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.