Melitaea phoebe punicata Ragusa, 1921

Melitaea phoebe punicata Ragusa, 1921 View in CoL

[TL: Italy, Sicily, Palermo District]. Apparently the Sicilian Macrolepidoptera collection of É. E. Ragusa was sold to Walter, Lord Rothschild ( HORN et al., 1990). There are nine males and five females in his collection at NHM, London, UK. (Russell and Tennent, pers. obs.); no indication that the material was syntypic was present on any of the data labels. According to GREGORI (1926) another part of the butterfly collection of Énrico Ragusa was in the Instituto di Zoologia, Universita di Napoli, Portici, Italy (ZIUP); at our request Roberta Improta made a thorough search of the Naples Museum collections but was unable to find any of Ragusa’s M. phoebe specimens (see Acknowledgements). From the NHM specimens, which are clearly M. ornata , a male captured by Ragusa in the District of Palermo is herewith designated as a lectotype. The specific characters of ornata are clearly visible in the photographs of the lectotype ( Figs 13a, b). M. phoebe has not been reported from Sicily ( RUSSELL, 2018). The labels on the pin of the lectotype ( Fig. 13c) are as follows: on beige paper, part printed part handwritten “Prov. Palermo/ Local. V[all] Corta/ Data 10.5.[1]917/ Coll. E. Ragusa”; on beige paper, printed “Sicily,/ coll. E. Ragusa”; on purple-bordered circular white paper printed “LECTO-/TYPE”; on beige paper printed “Rothschild/ Bequest/ B.M. 1939-1.”; on white paper printed “LECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe forma/ punicata Ragusa, 1919 / Designated by Russell/ & Tennent, 2019”.

We here designate the remaining 13 syntypes as paralectotypes, of which six have the following labels: on beige paper, printed “Sicilien”/ hand written “Ficuzza/ 5”/ printed “Geo.C.Kr.”; on beige paper printed “Sicily/ coll. E. Ragusa”; on beige paper printed “Rothschild/ Bequest/ B.M.1939-1.”; white circle with blue surround printed “PARA-/LECTO-/ TYPE”; on white paper printed “PARALECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe forma/ punicata Ragusa, 1919 / Designated by Russell/ & Tennent, 2019”, 4 have the following labels: on beige paper with black surround handwritten: “M. Cuccio/ 30.4.[1]916”; on beige paper printed: “Sicily/ coll. E. Ragusa”; on beige paper printed “Rothschild/ Bequest/ B.M.1939-1.”; white circle with blue surround printed “PARA-/LECTO-/ TYPE”; on white paper printed “PARALECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe forma/ punicata Ragusa, 1919 / Designated by Russell/ & Tennent, 2019” and finally three have the following labels: on beige paper printed: “Sicily/ coll. E. Ragusa”; on beige paper printed “Rothschild/ Bequest/ B.M.1939-1.”; white circle with blue surround printed “PARA-/LECTO-/ TYPE”; on white paper printed “PARALECTOTYPE/ Melitaea phoebe forma/ punicata Ragusa, 1919 / Designated by Russell/ & Tennent, 2019”. We here formally identify all 14 specimens as Melitaea ornata punicata Ragusa, 1921 .