N. W. Gillham.
The Taxonomic Identity of Melitaea (Athaliaeformia) mayi Gunder (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae).
Psyche 61(1):16-19, 1954.

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THE TAXONOMIC IDENTITY OF
MELITAEA (ATHALIAEF0RMIA)l MAYI GUNDER
(LEPIDOPTERA, NYMPHALIDAE)
BY NICHOLAS W. GILLHAM
Harvar,d University
Ever since mayi was described by Gunder (1929) as a new species it has been suspected of being closely related to the Melitaea species of the athalia group, which is pri- marily Palearctic. However, heretofore nobody appears actually to have compared specimens of magi with any of the Palearctic members of the group. In his original de- scription Gunder, I.c., expresses the belief that magi is very close to M. (A.) athalia latefascia Fixsen, basing his conviction on the insect figured on plate 66i of Seitz (1906) under the latter name. Verity (1941) concludes that the name latefascia is probably not applicable to Korean speci- mens previously listed under that name and that these specimens should be assigned to M. (A.) coreae Verity. This is important because he goes on to state that the species which Seitz, I.c., figured is the same thing as coreae. Therefore it can be seen that both Verity and Gunder equated mayi with the same species.
I have made quite a number of genitalic preparations, male and female, of mayi and of several of the Asian species Verity (1950) proposed the subgeneric name Athuliaejorntia to include those members of the genus Melituea belonging to the athalia group. He specifically lists Melitaea mayi as belonging to this subgenus. -
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 2
Pig. 1. Dorsal view of the male genitalia of Melitaea (Athaliaeformia) umbigua (zmayi) from Banff, Alberta (Genitalic Preparation 166). Fig. 2. Left lateral view of the genitalia in Fig. 1. Fig. 3. Dorsal view of the
male genitalia of M.
(A.) umbigua from Hsiolin, Manchuria (Genitalic Preparation 217). Fig. 4.
Left lateral view of the genitalia in Fig. 3. Fig. 5. Dorsal view of the male genitalia of another specimen from Hsiolin, Manchuria (Genitalic Preparation 218). Fig. 6. Left lateral view of the genitalia in Fig. 5. All figures drawn to the same scale. The aedeagus has been removed and is not shown in any of the figures. Ps~rhe 1(1:16.19 (1954). hupYlpsycheei~clubony'61/61-016 html



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18 Psyche [March
of the athalia group2. The preparations as well as the facies of moyi indicate that it does not belong to the same specific complex as coreae, as Verity thought, but is instead conspecific with another species, M. (A.) ambigm Mene- tries. I have figured the male genitalia of mayi (figs. 1 and 2) and of two specimens of ambigua (figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6) to show that they represent the same thing within the limits of individual variation. I have not figured the female genitalia because I can find no publication where the fe- male genitalia of related species of the athalia group have been figured or studied other than for group characters as a whole. However, my preparations of the female genitalia of both mayi and arnbigua show no real differences. The genitalia of coreae, on the other hand, appear to be quite distinct from those of ambigm and indeed the male geni- talia indicate that this species is extremely close if not conspecific with what Verity, I.c., considers to be M. (A.) britomartis Assmann. The male genitalia of coreae that I have examined agree quite well with those of britomartis figured by Petersen (1945). I must admit that on the basis of my studies I strongly doubt the distinctness of coreae from britomartis but since I do not have the material available to confirm my doubts I must leave the question open. Lastly it should be noted 'that coreae has an earlier flight period (late May to the middle of June) than does ambigm or its Nearctic representative mayi (late June to early August).
The synonomy of mayi with arnbigua provides us with a very interesting case of geographical distribution. My own examination of specimens and references in the litera- ture indicate that ambigua ranges from Japan west to the Eastern Sayansk Mountains in Siberia and between the fourtieth and fiftieth parallels in the north-south direction in the Palearctic region. In the Nearctic region its distribu- tion is drastically reduced and the only records that I can 'In this connection I should like to thank Dr. I?. H. Rindge of the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. P. J. Darlington of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Mr. H. K. Clench of the Carnegie Museum, and Mr. J. A. G. Rehn of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for making it possible for me to examine specimens under their care.




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1.9541 Gillha- Melitaea rnayi 19
find are for the area around Banff, Alberta, and Smithers, British Columbia.
REFERENCES
GUNDER, J. D.
1929. New Butterflies and Sundry Notes. Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc., 24: 325-332, plates 30 and 31.
HIGGINS, L. G.
1941. An Illustrated Catalogue of the Palearctic MeliLaea (Lep. Rhopalocera) . Trans. Royal Ent. Soc. of London, 91 : 175-365, 16 plates, 215 figures.
PETERSEN, B.
1945. Melitaea britomariis Assm. und Melitaea parthenie (Bkh.) (aurelia Nick.) in Schweden. Opuscula Entomologica, 10 : 135- 139, 1 plate, and 7 figures.
SEITZ, A.
1906. The Macrolepidoptera of the World. Volume 1, The Macro- lepidoptera of the Palearctic Fauna, 89 plates. VERITY, R.
1941.
Revision of the athalia group of the genus Melitaea Fabricius, 1807 (Lepidopt., Nymphalidae) . Trans. Royal Ent. Soc. of London, 89 :591-706, 14 plates.
1950. Le Farfalle Diurne d'ltalia, Volume 4. 380 pages.



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