GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 283 



Although it had been in almost universal use for over a century the name Melanargia 

 Meigen was invalid as a junior objective synonym of Agapetes Billberg, 1820, until in 1956 it 

 was validated by the Commission through the suppression of the name Agapetes Billberg 

 under the Plenary Powers by the Ruling given in Opinion 400 (Opin. int. Comm. zool. 

 Nom. 12 : 419 — 432). In the same Opinion the name Melanargia Meigen was placed on the 

 Official List of Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 991. 



MELANIA Sodovskii, 1837, Brill. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou 1837 (6) : 81). Type-species through 

 Section (i) (replacement names) of Article 67 : Papilio hermione Linnaeus, 1764, Mus. Lud. 

 Ulr. : 281. 



The name Melania Sodovskii was proposed as a replacement for the name Hipparchia 

 Fabricius, 1807. That name is however a nomenclatorially available name in no need of 

 replacement. The name Melania Sodovskii is therefore invalid as a junior objective synonym 

 of Hipparchia Fabricius. 



Even if the name Hipparchia Fabricius had been invalid, the name Melania Sodovskii 

 could not have been used as a replacement, for it is invalid under the Law of Homonymy, 

 being a junior homonym of Melania Lamarck, 1799 (Mim. Soc. Hist. nat. Paris 1799 : 75) 

 and of Melania Perry, 1811 (Conchl. pi. xxix). 



The taxon represented by the nominal species Papilio hermione Linnaeus is currently treated 

 subjectively on taxonomic grounds as being the same as that represented by the older- 

 established nominal species Papilio fagi Scopoli, 1763 (Ent. cam. : 152). 



MELANIS Hubner, [1819], Verz. bekannt. Schmett. (2) : 25. Type-species by selection by 

 Scudder (1875, Proc. amer. Acad. Arts Sci., Boston 10 : 214) : Papilio melander Stoll, 

 [1780], in Cramer, Uitl. Kapellen 4 (28) : 89 (pro parte), pi. 136, fig. B [fig. A]. 



Hubner cited the specific name of the type-species as melandra, but this was not a replace- 

 ment name for melander or even an emendation of that name, the variation in termination being 

 only due to a change in gender effected by Hubner for the purposes of making it agree in 

 gender with the generic name Melanis, a noun of feminine gender. 



It must be noted that, as originally established, the nominal species Papilio melander Stoll 

 comprised two taxonomic species, the one shown as fig. A, the other as fig. B, on his plate 136. 

 Stichel in 1910 (in Wytsman's Gen. Ins. 112 (A) : 203) established the nominal species Lymnas 

 multiplaga based on the species figured by Cramer as fig. A on his plate 336, thus leaving the 

 specimen figured by Cramer as fig. B to represent the lectotype of Papilio melander Cramer, the 

 type-species of the present genus (Melanis). 



The name Melanis (with its true type-species Papilio melander Cramer) is according to 

 current taxonomic ideas a senior subjective synonym of Lymnas Blanchard, 1840. The 

 latter name has however been widely used for this genus in the erroneous belief, it appears, 

 that the type-species of Melanis is the nominal species Papilio agyrtus Cramer, a species 

 considered not be congeneric with Hesperia electron Fabricius, the type-species of Lymnas 

 Blanchard. By those authors who have mistakenly used the name Melanis in this way the 

 name Isapis Doubleday, 1847 (type-species: Papilio agyrtus Cramer) has been erroneously 

 treated as a junior synonym of Melanis Hubner. 



MELANITIS Fabricius, 1807, Mag. f. Insektenk. (Illiger) 6 : 282. Type-species by selection by 

 Butler (1868, Ent. man. Mag. 4 : 194) : Papilio leda Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 

 474- 



MELANOCYMA Westwood, 1858, Trans, ent. Soc. Loud. (2) 4 : 186. Type-species by mono- 

 typy; Thaumantis faunula Westwood, [Dec. 1850], in Doubleday, Gen. diurn. Lep. (2) : 

 pi. 54, fig. 1; id., [Jan. 1851], in Doubleday, ibid. (2) : 334 nota (as Clerome sp.). 



MELANOPE Rober, [1892], in Schatz, in Staudinger & Schatz, Exot. Schmett., Bd 1, (Th. 2) 

 (6) : 257. Type-species by monotypy : Aricoris bahiana Felder (C.) & Felder (R.), [1865], 

 Reise Fregalte " Novara " , Lep. Rhop. (2) : 295, pi. 38, figs 3, 4. 



The taxon represented by the nominal species Aricoris bahiana Felder (C.) & Felder (R.) is 



