Spanish Fritilllaries

[Nigel Kiteley]

I spent the second week of July in North East Spain and whilst there I visited the Parque Natural Montes Obarenes where I saw the following Fritillaries. They were all in the same spot at about 800m, about 2km east of the village of Villanueva de los Montes.

The first three images are of very fresh individuals and I was thinking the sub species of athalia named "celadussa" for these, but once again I seek the advice of the resident experts.

These two images are of a worn individual that I am unsure of, I was thinking parthenoides.

Also seen at the same site were Argynnis paphia, Argynnis aglaja, and Brenthis daphne.

[Chris Jackson]

Hello Nigel,
I've been keeping an eye on your post for a few days now. Pending the opinion of an expert, and to keep your post active, I thought I'd say hello.
Down here in Marseilles, presumably I see only M. athalia celadussa. To make matters worse, our local authority (recorder) tells us that we should ignore this taxon, and that our species is now called M. helvetica. I have a job keeping up with these changes
Here is what I see within a radius of 40 km around Marseilles. My photos cannot rival with yours for quality but they give an idea of marking intensity:
Female 22 August:

Male 22 August:

Male, dark variety 07 June:

Trying to compare with the text books does not give a definitive result. This species appears to be very variable.
The important thing is, I hope you had good holidays in Spain .
Cheers, Chris

[Padfield]

Hi Nigel (and Chris). It's good Chris reanimated the thread because I had seen it on the move, as so often happens, then forgotten about it because I always enter through 'new posts'.

I agree - these are Melitaea athalia celadussa, or what Oorschot & Coutsis call Melitaea nevadensis: "As M. athalia and M. nevadensis differ from each other by genitalia, by their immature stages and by mtDNA sequencing, and given the fact that their interbreeding dynamics have not yet been studied and understood, we are inclined to consider them as separate species, albeit on a tentative basis, pending further investigation and information" (The genus Melitaea, Fabricius, 1807, Oorschot and Coutsis, 2014).

Fauna Europaea lists the valid name as M. athalia celadussa but in the end I have a feeling nevadensis will prevail, as it is clearly a good taxon and the hybridisation region, according to O & C, is not expanding, suggesting low viability of hybrid offspring.

Guy