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Melitaea Fabricius 1807

"Fritillaries"

Niklas Wahlberg and Andrew V. Z. Brower
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taxon links Not MonophyleticNot MonophyleticPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertainPhylogenetic position of group is uncertain[down<--]Melitaeini Interpreting the tree
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Containing group: Melitaeini

Introduction

A diverse Palearctic group, with many species in central Asia.

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

Phylogenetic relationships as inferred from DNA sequences by Leneveu et al. (2009). The topology is based on the strict consensus of results from parsimony analysis (their Fig. 2A). Note that in the original figure, different individuals of Melitaea didyma appear in four different places on the tree: as sister to M. ninae, sister to (M. ninae + M. didyma + M. chitralensis + M. enarea), sister to M. latonigi, and in the polytomy with M. saxatilis, etc. The position indicated here is the Adams compromise (most basal node including all representatives). The polyphyly of the "species" suggests that M. didyma may be a complex of similar-looking species (or that all the other "species" in the clade are variable populations of M. didyma.

Taxa not included in the Leneveu et al. study are indicated as incertae sedis associated with their putative species groups.

Other Names for Melitaea Fabricius 1807

References

Leneveu, J., Chichvarkhin, A. & Wahlberg, N. 2009 Varying rates of diversification in the genus Melitaea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) during the past 20 million years. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 97:346-361.

Wahlberg, N., A. V. Z. Brower, and S. Nylin. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of tribes and genera in the subfamily Nymphalinae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 86:227-251.

Wahlberg, N., and M. Zimmermann. 2000. Pattern of phylogenetic relationships among members of the tribe Melitaeini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) inferred from mtDNA sequences. Cladistics 16:347-363.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Melitaea varia
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Source Mellicta varia
Source Collection Flickr
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 2.0.
Copyright © 2008 YannickC
Scientific Name Melitaea didyma
Location France, Aude, Villegly
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By Niklas Wahlberg
Sex Female
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © Niklas Wahlberg
About This Page

Niklas Wahlberg
University of Turku, Finland


Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Niklas Wahlberg at and Andrew V. Z. Brower at

Page: Tree of Life Melitaea Fabricius 1807. "Fritillaries". Authored by Niklas Wahlberg and Andrew V. Z. Brower. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Wahlberg, Niklas and Andrew V. Z. Brower. 2009. Melitaea Fabricius 1807. "Fritillaries". Version 04 June 2009 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Melitaea/70305/2009.06.04 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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