Melitaea phoebe subsp. bethunebakeri, Sagarra, 1926

M. phoebe bethunebakeri Sagarra, 1926 View in CoL

[TL: Spain: Andalucía, Granada, Sierra Nevada]. According to MACIÀ et al. (2017) there is a solitary male syntype in the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Barcelona [MZB], Spain; there are three Syntypes in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University. PR and RLH hereby designate one of these syntypes from Harvard as a lectotype ( Figs 14a, b). All three specimens have the same data ( Fig. 14c); from the high-quality photograph of the underside of this specimen ( Fig. 14b) it can be seen that it exhibits the morphological traits of M. ornata , although some of the centrally thickened submarginal markings on the ventral surface touch the intervening veins. The remaining three syntypes are here designated as paralectotypes.

The labels ( Fig. 14c) on the pin of the lectotype are as follows: on white paper printed: “ANDALUCIA 1600 m./ Sierra Nevada/21.6.25 Romei”; on red paper printed: “M.C.Z/ Paratype” /handwritten: “25800”; on white paper printed: “AG Weeks/ Collection”; on red paper handwritten: “ M. phoebe / bethune-bakeri Sag./ type series Querci”; on white paper printed: “MCZ-ENT/ 00112412”; on red paper printed: “LECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe / bethunebakeri / Sagarra, 1926 / Designated Russell & Hawkins, 2019”; on white paper printed: “ Melitaea ornata bethunebakeri Sagarra, 1926 / Determined Russell & Hawkins, 2019”.

The labels on the paralectotype in Barcelona are as follows: on beige paper printed in black “ANDALUCIA 1600 m./ Sierra Nevada/ 21[handwritten].6.25 Romei; on white paper printed “73- 4028/ MZB; on white paper printed “509”; on white paper handwritten “Bethune / bakeri ”; on white paper double edged in black, printed “ Melitaea phoebe Bethune-/ bakeri Sagarra, 1926 / black line/ Melitaea phoebe (Goeze,/ 1779)/ R. Macià rev. 2015”; on white paper with black surround, printed in red “PARALECTOTYPE”/ printed in black “ Melitaea phoebe / bethunebakeri / Sagarra, 1926 / Designated Russell / & Hawkins”; on white paper with black surround printed in black “ Melitaea ornata / bethunebakeri / Sagarra, 1926 / Determined Russell/ and Hawkins, 2019.”

The labels on the two paralectotypes in Harvard are as follows: on white paper printed: “ANDALUCIA 1600 m./ Sierra Nevada/21 [handwritten].6.25 Romei”; on red paper printed: “M.C.Z/ Paratype”/handwritten: “25800”; on white paper printed: “AG Weeks/ Collection”; on white paper printed: “ Melitaea ornata bethunebakeri Sagarra, 1926 / Determined Russell & Hawkins, 2019”; on red paper handwritten: “ M. phoebe / bethune-bakeri Sag./ type series Querci”; on red paper printed: “PARALECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe / bethunebakeri / Sagarra, 1926 / Designated Russell and Hawkins, 2019”.

There is a pair of specimens in the Rothschild collection at the NHM in London (pers obs.) which may have been part of the syntype series, due to the similarity of their labels, and which can be identified clearly as M. ornata . Also MANLEY & ALLCARD (1970: plate 10, figs 1-4) figured two pairs of this subspecies from Sierra de Alfacar and Sierra Nevada, Granada, taken between 14 and 29 June 1959 at circa 1100-1650 m; the two figured undersides show the typical characters of M. ornata .

It has been brought to the first author’s attention that a new subspecies for those M. ornata from various locations in Spain had been created - Melitaea ornata baetica, Muñoz-Sariot & Sánchez-Mesa, 2019 . This name was changed later (cf MUÑOZ-SARIOT & SÁNCHEZ-MESA, 2019a and b) to M. ornata pseudornata Muñoz-Sariot & Sánchez-Mesa, 2019 ; the name baetica was preoccupied by Melitaea baetica Rambur, 1858 , a synonym for what is now known as Euphydryas desfontainii (Godart, 1819) . The holotype of M. ornata pseudornata [TL: Quéntar, Sierra Nevada, Granada, 1300 m, emerged 29-V-2018, from larva collected on 15-IV-2018] bears a remarkable resemblance to the lectotype of bethunebakeri designated above ( Figs 14a, b), which also originated from the Sierra Nevada, 1600 m in 1925 ( Fig. 14c): apart from the rather more acute forewing apices, which can be variable, of the taxon pseudornata, the antennal and wing morphology of both the holotype of pseudornata and the lectotype of bethunebakeri are almost identical. The subspecies Melitaea ornata pseudornata Muñoz-Sariot & Sánchez-Mesa, 2019 is hereby placed in synonymy with M. ornata bethunebakeri Sagarra, 1926 , comb. n. and syn. n.