Melitaea phoebe

Melitaea phoebe View in CoL ab. totila Stauder, 1914

[TL: Italy, Calabria, Cosenza, Mt. Cocuzzo] was described as an aberration (“Ich benenne diese Aberration Forma totila , ab. nov.”), thus Stauder’s 1914 name totila , although it has been given subspecific status by TÓTH & VARGA (2011) has no status in nomenclature. The whereabouts of the specimen is not known but its geographic source, south of the known distribution of M. phoebe in Italy, suggests it is an aberration of M. ornata ( RUSSELL & TENNENT, 2016: note 92; RUSSELL, 2018: 258). VERITY (1938: 152 and Tav. 43: figs 68, 69) considered this to equate to M. phoebe phoebina Turati, 1921 (see below); however his illustrations appear significantly paler than Stauder’s much darker melanic female ( STAUDER, 1914: 373, fig. 1).