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

M. phoebe var. ornata Christoph, 1893

[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 ) 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).

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.