"Melithea" redirects here; this was also used for the octocoral genus Melithaea.

Adult Melitaea didymoides pekinensis, belonging to the large didyma group
Melitaea is a genus of brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). They are here placed in the tribe Melitaeini of subfamily Nymphalinae; some authors elevate this tribe to subfamily rank.

As delimited here, Melitaea includes the genus Mellicta, making the subtribe Melitaeina monotypic (but see below). For long, it was believed that Mellicta was a junior objective synonym of Melitaea, sharing the same type species (the Glanville Fritillary, M. cinxia). This was in error, however; the type species of Mellicta is actually the Heath Fritillary (M. athalia), making the two taxa junior subjective synonyms and thus eligible to be separated again. However, several other taxa are in fact objective synonyms (or at least have type specimens belonging to the same biological species) of Melitaea and Mellicta – Schoenis and the preoccupied Lucina and Melinaea for the former, Athaliaeformia for the latter.

Species

Adult Melitaea solona evadne (minerva group)

Adult male Melitaea punica (phoebe group)
As noted above, Mellicta is considered to be a subgenus of Melitaea for the time being. The rationale is that even though the Melitaeina may not be monotypic, they do not seem to consist of just two genera (Melitaea and Mellicta) either, and recognition of Mellicta appears to leave Melitaea paraphyletic; consequently, other lineages would need elevation to distinct genus status also. As long as it is not fully known which species groups and/or subgenera warrant recognition as full genera, they are all retained in the present genus.

In the following list, species-group/subgenus affiliation and type species are annotated. In the sensu lato circumscription used here, Melitaea contains almost 90 species. Most being assignable to one of the 5 groups/subgenera, there are a few that cannot be clearly placed with one of these at present:

didyma/Didymaeformis group

Melitaea abyssinica Oberthür, 1909
Melitaea acraeina (Staudinger, 1886)
Melitaea agar Oberthür, 1888
Melitaea ala Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea alraschid Higgins, 1941
Melitaea ambrisia Higgins, 1935
Melitaea arduinna (Esper, 1783) – Freyer's Fritillary
Melitaea athene Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea avinovi Sheljuzhko, 1914
Melitaea casta (Kollar, )
Melitaea chitralensis Moore, 1901
Melitaea deserticola Oberthür, 1909 – Desert Fritillary
Melitaea didyma – Spotted Fritillary, Red-band Fritillary (type of Didymaeformis)
Melitaea didymina Staudinger, 1895
Melitaea didymoides Eversmann, 1847
Melitaea enarea Fruhstorfer, 1917
Melitaea fergana Staudinger, 1882
Melitaea infernalis Grum-Grshimailo, 1891
Melitaea interrupta Kolenati, 1846
Melitaea jitka Weiss & Major, 2000
Melitaea kotshubeji Sheljuzhko, 1929
Melitaea latonigena Eversmann, 1847
Melitaea lunulata Staudinger, 1901
Melitaea lutko Evans, 1932
Melitaea meherparvari Carbonell, 2007
Melitaea mimetica Higgins, 1940
Melitaea mixta Evans, 1912
Melitaea ninae Sheljuzhko, 1935
Melitaea persea Kollar,
Melitaea pseudoala Sheljuzhko, 1928
Melitaea robertsi Butler, 1880 – Baluchi Fritillary
Melitaea romanovi Grum-Grshimailo, 1891
Melitaea sarvistana Wiltshire, 1941
Melitaea saxatilis Christoff, 1876[verification needed]
Melitaea shandura Evans, 1924
Melitaea sutschana Staudinger, 1892
Melitaea trivia – Lesser Spotted Fritillary, "desert fritillary"
Melitaea yuenty Oberthür, 1888
cinxia/Melitaea sensu stricto group

Melitaea amoenula C. & R.Felder,
Melitaea arcesia Bremer, 1861 – Blackvein Fritillary
Melitaea balbita Moore, 1874
Melitaea bellona Leech,
Melitaea cinxia – Glanville Fritillary (type of Melitaea)
Melitaea diamina – False-heath Fritillary
Melitaea jezabel Oberthür, 1888
Melitaea protomedia Ménétriés, 1859
Melitaea sindura Moore, 1865
minerva group

Melitaea asteroidea Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea balba Evans, 1912
Melitaea elisabethae Avinoff, 1910
Melitaea ludmilla Churkin, Kolesnichenko & Tuzov, 2000
Melitaea minerva Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea pallas Staudinger, 1886
Melitaea solona Alphéraky, 1881
Melitaea sultanensis Staudinger, 1886
Melitaea turanica Erschoff, 1874
phoebe/Cinclidia group

Melitaea aetherie – Aetherie Fritillary
Melitaea collina Lederer, 1861
Melitaea consulis Wiltshire, 1941
Melitaea gina Higgins, 1941
Melitaea kuchi Wyatt, 1961
Melitaea phoebe – Knapweed Fritillary (type of Cinclidia)
Melitaea pseudosibina Alberti, 1969
Melitaea punica Oberthür, 1876
Melitaea scotosia Butler, 1878
Melitaea sibina Alphéraky, 1881
Melitaea telona (formerly in M. phoebe or M. punica)
Melitaea turkmanica Higgins, 1940
Mellicta group


Adult Melitaea centralasiae of the Mellicta group
Melitaea alatauica Staudinger, 1881
Melitaea ambigua Ménétriés in Schrenck, 1859
Melitaea asteria – Little Fritillary
Melitaea athalia – Heath Fritillary (type of Mellicta)
Melitaea aurelia – Nickerl's Fritillary
Melitaea britomartis – Assmann's Fritillary
Melitaea centralasiae (Wnukowsky, 1929) (sometimes in M. menetriesi)
Melitaea caucasogenita Verity, 1930
Melitaea deione – Provençal Fritillary
Melitaea menetriesi Caradja, 1895
Melitaea nevadensis Oberthür, 1904
Melitaea parthenoides – European Meadow Fritillary, "meadow fritillary"
Melitaea plotina Bremer, 1861
Melitaea rebeli Wnukowsky, 1929
Melitaea varia – Grisons Fritillary
Melitaea westsibirica (Dubatolov, 1998)
Incertae sedis

Melitaea kunlunensis Kudrna & Mracek, 1994
Melitaea oorschoti Eckweiler, 2008
Melitaea paludani Clench & Shoumatoff, 1956
Melitaea tangigharuensis de Freina, 1980
Melitaea wiltshirei Higgins, 1941
^ See references in Haaramo (2010, 2011)

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