Melitaea phoebe galliaemontium Verity, 1928

Russell, P. J. C., Bartolozzi, L., Hawkins, R. L., Tennent, W. J. & Léger, T., 2020, Designation of lectotypes for some Spanish and other western European Melitaea taxa, some with mixed syntypic series of M. phoebe ([Denis & amp; Schiffermüller], 1775) and M. ornata Christoph, 1893 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología 48 (191), pp. 449-472 : 455

Melitaea phoebe galliaemontium Verity, 1928

[TL: Mont-Dore, Puy-de-Dôme, France]. This is a name given by Verity to an unnamed race described but not named by FRUHSTORFER (1918: 42). This was a small race with part of the forewings and all of hindwings covered in a greenish suffusion. HIGGINS (1941: 340) mistakenly gave the description of these specimens as being covered in black suffusion; this actually applied to the previous description of crassenigra Verity, 1928 , given to specimens from Gironde, Lozère and Pyrénées Orientales (VERITY, 1928: 162). There were no specimens of this subspecies extant in Verity’s collection in Florence in the early 1980’s ( KUDRNA, 1983) and thus no further comment can be made; the name was included here simply to correct the description given by Higgins and to confirm that the problem of identity is insoluble until further samples are collected from the Mont-Dore area. This taxon was not considered by VAN OORSCHOT & COUTSIS (2014) but RUSSELL & TENNENT (2016: 47, note 38) considered it to be M. phoebe , based on its location.