©Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica; download unter http://www.soceurlep.eu/ und www.zobodat.at Nota Lepi. 39(1) 2016: 27–56 | DOI 10.3897/nl.39.5929 A synonymic list of names associated with western Palaearctic Melitaea phoebe (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) species group taxa (M. phoebe; M. punica Oberthür, 1876; M. ornata Christoph, 1893) (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) Peter Russell1, W. John Tennent2 1 Oakmeadow, Wessex Avenue, East Wittering, West Sussex PO20 8NP, U.K.;
[email protected] 2 Scientific Associate, Division of Insects, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K.;
[email protected] http://zoobank.org/721CB232-8B92-4542-BF4D-563040229871 Received 17 August 2015; accepted 9 January 2016; published: 18 April 2016 Subject Editor: Thomas Schmitt. Abstract. Following indecision and confusion in the literature regarding nomenclature and distribution of Melitaea phoebe (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) and its closely associated congeners M. punica Oberthür, 1876, and M. ornata Christoph, 1893, a synonymic list of phoebe names, and of names both correctly and mis- takenly associated with phoebe species-group taxa, is presented. Explanatory footnotes provide the basis of a stable source for future discussion of M. phoebe species-group populations throughout the species’ ranges. Introduction According to a recent revision (van Oorschot and Coutsis 2014), the genus Melitaea Fabricius, 1807, comprises some 98 species of phenotypically similar, medium sized nymphaline butterflies that occur throughout most of the Palaearctic Region and beyond. Adults are invariably orange- brown on the upper surface, with a series of black lines and other markings; several Melitaea species are notoriously difficult to separate using wing morphology due to their similarity in appearance (Jugovic and Koren 2014).