Melitaea
Melitaea is a genus of brush-footed butterflies. 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. For long, it was believed that Mellicta was a junior objective synonym of Melitaea, sharing the same type species. This was in error, however; the type species of Mellicta is actually the heath fritillary, making the two taxa junior subjective synonyms and thus eligible to be separated again. However, several other taxa are in fact objective synonyms of Melitaea and Mellicta – Schoenis and the preoccupied Lucina and Melinaea for the former, Athaliaeformia for the latter.
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 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:didyma/Didymaeformia group
- Melitaea amoenula C. & R.Felder,
- Melitaea arcesia Bremer, 1861 – blackvein fritillary
- Melitaea balbita Moore, 1874
- Melitaea bellona Leech,
- Melitaea cinxia – Glanville fritillary
- Melitaea diamina – false-heath fritillary
- Melitaea jezabel Oberthür, 1888
- Melitaea protomedia Ménétriés, 1859
- Melitaea sindura Moore, 1865
- Melitaea aetherie – 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
- Melitaea pseudosibina Alberti, 1969
- Melitaea punica Oberthür, 1876
- Melitaea scotosia Butler, 1878
- Melitaea sibina Alphéraky, 1881
- Melitaea telona Christoph, 1893
- Melitaea turkmanica Higgins, 1940
Mellicta group
- Melitaea alatauica Staudinger, 1881
- Melitaea ambigua Ménétriés in Schrenck, 1859
- Melitaea asteria – little fritillary
- Melitaea athalia – heath fritillary
- Melitaea aurelia Nickerl, 1850 – Nickerl's fritillary
- Melitaea britomartis Assmann, 1847 – Assmann's fritillary
- Melitaea caucasogenita Verity, 1930
- Melitaea centralasiae
- 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 – Grisons fritillary
- Melitaea westsibirica
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