Relationships within the Melitaea phoebe species group (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): new insights from molecular and morphometric information János P. Tóth1,2, Judit Bereczki1,3, Zoltán Varga1, Jadranka Rota6, Gábor Sramkó4,5, Niklas Wahlberg6 1Department of Evolutionary Zoology & Human Biology, Institute of Biology & Ecology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary; 2Research Institute for Viticulture and Oenology, Tarcal, Hungary; 3MTA-DE „Lendület‟ Behavioural Ecology Research Group, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary; 4MTA-ELTE-MTM Ecology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary; 5Department of Botany, Institute of Biology & Ecology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary; 6Laboratory of Genetics, Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland Correspondence: János P. Tóth, Department of Evolutionary Zoology & Human Biology, Institute of Biology & Ecology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, P.O.Box 3, H-4010, Hungary. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The genus Melitaea consists of about 80 species, divided into 10 species groups, which are all restricted to the Palaearctic region. The Melitaea phoebe group was defined by Higgins based on morphological characters such as wing pattern and genital structures. According to his interpretation, the M. phoebe group included seven species: M. phoebe, M. sibina, M. scotosia, M. aetherie, M. collina, M. consulis and M. turkmanica. The taxonomy of the phoebe species group has been poorly resolved and recent results on the species composition within the group suggest the need for a re-evaluation. In this study molecular sequences (5985 bp) including one mitochondrial (COI) and up to six nuclear (CAD, EF-1α , GAPDH, MDH, RpS5 and wingless) gene regions from 38 specimens of the Melitaea phoebe species group sensu Higgins and some closely related taxa from the Palaearctic region were analysed.