THE TAXONOMIC IDENTITY OF 
MELITAEA {ATHALIAEFORMIAy MAYI GUNDER 
(LEPIDOPTERA, NYMPHALIDAE) 
By Nicholas W. Gillham 
Harvard 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 mayi with any of 
the Palearctic members of the group. In his original de- 
scription Gunder, l.c., expresses the belief that mayi 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, l.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 siihgeneric name Athaliaeformin to include 
those members of the genus Melitaea belonging to the athalia group. He 
specifically lists Melitaea mayi as belonging to this subgenus. 
Explan.\tion of Plate 2 
Fig. 1. Dorsal view of the male genitalia of Melitaea (Athaliaejormia) 
ambigua (z=mayi) 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. (4.) ambigua 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. 
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