Melitaea ( Mellicta ) differentiation - undersides

[Reverdin]

In the past I had great difficulty with differentiating these species in Europe, and I am still far from confident. Lafranchis, Tolman, all of the books I find helpful but not the way I would like to see it... comparative views all in one place... so if anyone wants to add a species here, cropped to much the same as I have done for starters, I would be very grateful... it could become a useful resource in time, possibly... so to start off...

athalia ( Heath )

diamina ( False Heath - Alps)

parthenoides ( Meadow )

varia ( Grisons )

cinxia

deione berisalii

didyma

I'm not even sure of the parthenoides... so aurelia, britomartis and asteria etc etc are missing from this group... any offers?

[Padfield]

This will be an interesting page. I can add aurelia, definite parthenoides (for a page like this I think all pictures should be 100% IDs!) and vernetensis (which is rather different from nominate diamina). I'll do this when I get a moment to look for the best pictures, unless someone else provides them first.

The problem, as you know, is that the undersides are very variable. I'm looking forward to my copy of the new book Butterflies of Europe and the Mediterranean area arriving (see: https://sites.google.com/site/tshikolov ... anean-area), as it has excellent series of set specimens of all species. Ugly though set specimens are, they do provide a good standard for comparison and should all be 100% verified individuals. The specimens are drawn from collections all over Europe and were not, I believe, taken for this book.

Guy

[Reverdin]

That does sound like a good book, agreed on the set specimen shudder! - with a few contributions of the variations within a species it could work well, but the images will be necessarily disjointed, unless maybe downloaded to a moderator to place on in one single post ?
There are many ID difficulties which could respond to such a posting I think, remembering how difficult it used to be when one hadn't seen much.. eg - is my photo icarus or eros... when if you have met both species there would never have been any doubt - so it wouldn't only have to be the notorious erebia or pyrgus. -
You have hit on the problem though, what if my (only) parthenoides underside was actually summit else.