First record of Melitaea ornata Christoph, 1893, from Slovenia, with notes on its confirmed distribution and hybridisation with M. phoebe ([Denis & Schiffermuller], 1775)

摘要

Egg batches obtained from females, sampled from populations of Melitaea ornata-like butterflies in south-western Slovenia in 2011 and 2012, were reared under 'laboratory' conditions in the U.K. Most unusually, heavy mortality of ova, larvae, pupae andimagines was observed and very few healthy butterflies resulted from the female captured in 2011. It is suggested that this female was M. ornata but had been fertilised by a male M. phoebe from a nearby population, producing very few hybrid offspring. The rearings from the two females taken in 2012 produced adults from larvae with red-brown heads and thus were confirmed as M. omata; this is the first confirmed record of this species from Slovenia. The results of examination of the male genitalia of reared (i.e. known from head colour) M. phoebe and M. omata are presented together with some wild-caught examples; these are compared with the individual's wing morphology and larval head colour. Comments are made on the lack of recognition of M. omata in some recent publications and stressing the doubtfulness of separating this species from M. phoebe using only characters of wing morphology. The continued confusion between these two species and with M. punica by recent authors is exemplified.