Melitaea varissima Verity, 1914

Zahiri, Reza, Nazari, Vazrick, Rajaei, Hossein, Wiemers, Martin, Fatahi, Maryam, Seidel, Matthias, Dalsgaard, Thure & Husemann, Martin, 2021, ? An illustrated catalogue of the type specimens of Lepidoptera housed in the Zoological Museum Hamburg (ZMH): Part II. superfamily Papilionoidea, Evolutionary Systematics 5 (2), pp. 193-261 : 193

?111. Melitaea varissima Verity, 1914

Original combination.

" Melitaea [parthenie Bkh] Melitaea varia Meyer-Dür varissima nom. nov." Verity, 1914 (1913) Boll. Soc. Ent. Ital. 45: 210.

Current combination.

Melitaea varia varissima Verity, 1914.

Current status.

Valid subspecies.

Original material.

Labelled as “Type” 6?? (ZMH 833461-833466) (Fig. 111 ). " varissima Vrty" // " Melitaea varia Meyer-Dür” // "Marche / Bolognola / 25.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833461"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 20.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833462"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 14.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833462"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 14.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833463"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 5.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833464"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 22.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833465"; " varissima Vrty" // "Marche / Bolognola / 25.VI.1937 / Querci" // [blank label] // "ZMH 833466 ".

Original locality.

Italy: Bologna "Nei Faggeti di Bologna, nella località Costarotara e a Piano Astore dei Monti Sibillini, da 1200 a 1600 m. d’altitudine” [Bologna, vicinity of Costarotara and Piano Astore of the Sibillini Mountains, 1200-1600 m.].

Remarks.

Verity (1919) proposed this name as a “race” of Melitaea varia Meyer-Dür, 1851. According to Kudrna (1983: 84), this name is available as subspecific. The year on the specimen labels (1937) indicate specimens were collected 23 years after description (1914) from the same location the original holotype material was collected. As a result, the black label of the specimens treated as “types” is erroneous. The specimen collected from the same geographical location from which the type specimen was collected is called topotype. According to ICZN (1999), a topotype has no formal standing and is not regulated by the Code. Therefore, these six specimens are erroneously labelled as types, should be annotated as "Not a Type" and are treated here as “Non-type” specimens.

Figures

Plate 16. 110. Melitaea athalia tenuicula Verity, 1919; 111. Melitaea varia varissima Verity, 1914; 112. Melitaea cinxia riloensis Zuellich, 1936; 113. Melitaea deione ab. mediofasciata Bubacek, 1926; 114. Melitaea diamina ab. johni Stauder, 1922; 115. Melitaea trivia balcanica Zuellich, 1936; 116. Melitaea trivia catapelioides Stauder, 1918; 117. Melitaea trivia ignasiti de Sagarra, 1926. a. Dorsal view, b. ventral view.