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Melitaea arduinna (Esper, 1783)                      Freyer’s Fritillary


                    A rare and local low-flying species closely associated   referred to as subspecies evanescens but the reason
                    with its hostplants. Resembles M. cinxia but is larger   for their separation appears to be obscure. So far as
                    and with a more intense orange colour.  M.  arduinna   the Israeli population of  M.  arduinna are concerned,                                                                     © Dubi Benyamini           ‹  2ÀU WRPHU
                    has a very restricted distribution in the Levant: in   if the females prove to be totally monomorphic then
                    Jordan, it was originally known only from Jebel Suwada   it may be necessary to give them subspecific status,
                    (ca. 1200 m) north of Salt, where the first specimens   since this must be an inherent genetic difference from
                    (two females) were collected by Philby in 19 April   the populations of all the other regions studied”.
                    1923 (Graves, 1925a), but has since been collected   (*- evanescens’ larval colour patterns that were not
                    at Na’ur, Amman, Jarash and other Jordanian locations   checked by DB, is above the scope of this parag. and
                    (ten Hagen, 1995, 1996; Katbeh-Bader et al., 2003).   because its identity is not well defined – as explained
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                    Hemming (1932b) listed two questionable locations   above).                                                                           HJJ  1 1 1 1 1  2  3  4  4  5  5  6  6  7  7  8  8  9  1 01 11 2  2
                                                                                                                                                  lar v a
                    in Syria: Shar-Deresy and Abkès ([sic] Akbez, N Hatay,   *HQLWDOLD  John Coutsis (Athens, Greece) dissected the            pupa                                              ‹  2ÀU WRPHU                 © Dubi Benyamini
                    Turkey?) based on specimens in the NHMUK. Amsel’s   relevant M. arduinna genitalia; three of which belong to
                    (1933) list for ‘Palästina’ includes the first record   Israeli specimens from the three main populations and
                    west of the Jordan River, but other than ‘Gebirge’ (=   the other five to specimens that are from other localities
                    mountain) no other data is given. In 19 April 1980,   – see figs 1a – 1e below. Their drawings proved that:
                    DB collected the first Israeli specimen near Ma’ale-  “Insofar as the Israeli material is concerned I have
                    Efraim, west of the Jordan River immediately opposite   included only the components that are of diagnostic
                    the location in Salt in the same Gregorian date and in   value, the most important being the crown-like set of
                    April 1982, a second population was found at Nahal   spines on dorsum of base of the valval distal process
                    Aviv, north of Safed (Tsfat, Benyamini, 1990: 130). In   and the small, triangular, stubby extensions in place
                    early April 2017, the S Samaria desert populations   of the usual unci on distal edge of the tegumen. You’ll       N Israel, HaTanor, 400 m, 12.8.1977.
                    SSW of Ma’ale Efraim at Rimonim & Kohav HaShahar    also notice that in the Israeli specimens the base of the
                    were rediscovered (Benyamini, 2017c & 2020k) and    valval distal process is wide in a lateral aspect whereas
                    in 9 March 2020 a new flourishing population was    it is narrow in the specimen from Afghanistan and                        M. d. libanotica Belter, 1934                           ‹ 2ÀU 7RPHU             ‹ 2ÀU 7RPHU
                    discovered in N Samaria, Mt Kabir (J. Bilal) NE Nablus   the one from Tajikistan. The specimens from Turkey,
                    (Benyamini, 2020l). M. arduinna is a highly vulnerable   Greece and the Republic of N. Macedonia (part of ex
                    species (see ‘Conservation’); its populations are   Yugoslavia) differ only marginally in this respect from
                    isolated by about 450 km from the main areas of     the Israeli material and the difference is probably due
                    distribution in Turkey but only ~ 33 km across the   to individual variation on both sides”.  Finally Coutsis
                    Jordan River to its first Levant’s recorded biotope near   added: “I believe that the Israeli desert populations
                    Salt, Jordan.                                       deserve a ssp. status of their own, if anything because
                                                                        of their wing color and marking peculiarities, as well as
                    7KH QHZ VXE VSHFLHV                                 their geographic isolation.” (John Coutsis pers. comm.            Turky, Aksehir Sultan Dagh,   +DWD\  0W  'D]GDøL       P
                    Larsen & Nakamura (1983) defined it as “rare and    to DB).
                    local” in Jordan and suggested that “It may be a
                    relict of a brief period in time when there was a wet                                                                                                                              © Adam Warecki          © Adam Warecki
                    Irano-Turanian bridge between Jordan and Iraq”. They
                    were actually the first to refer the isolated Jordanian
                    population to ssp.  evanescens and summarized their
                    treatment that “..in all likelihood it will be found to
                    merit a subspecific name of its own once large series   a - Galilee         b - N Samaria
                    are on hand”.                                                                                                        +DWD\  0W  'D]GDøL       P   +DWD\  0W  'D]GDøL       P
                    In their thorough studies on the Israeli  M.  arduinna
                    early stages, hostplants, wingspan measurements and
                    colours  Benyamini and Russell (2019) summarized
                    their knowledge until 2018 and compared it to other
                    populations from Russia, the Caucasus and the        c - S Samaria          d - Afganistan
                    Balkans. In their conclusions they discussed Higgins                                                                                                                                     ‹ 2ÀU 3LWWHZD\    © Dubi Benyamini
                    (1941) decision of “mod. evanescens Staudinger, 1886
                    [TL: ..Nord-Persien und Samarkand...Alai (Margelan)..
                    and Uzbekistan]” as specimens that are not obviously                                                                 +DWD\  0W  'D]GDøL       P   Hatay, Mt. Amanos, 1550 m
                    typical  arduinna  or rhodopensis, should be called
                    evanescens but “this does not fit with the concept of   e - Tadjikistan                                                      M. d. didyma (Esper, 1778)
                    subspecies, since it takes no account of its area of                        f - Turkey
                    distribution; any particular subspecies should have
                    its own discrete area of distribution.” Finalizing our
                    article we wrote: “There does not appear to be any
                    information available on the colour pattern of the
                    larvae* of subspecies evanescens, nor do there appear
                    to be any diagnostic features of the adult wing pattern   g - Greece        h - N. Macedonia
                    that separate it from that of nominotypical  arduinna.   Figs 1 (a-h) - Melitaea arduinna male genitalias of Israel & West Bank
                    Levant’s populations of M. arduinna have often been   (X3), Afghanistan, Tadjikistan, Turkey, Greece and N. Macedonia                                   © Dubi Benyamini                                   © Dubi Benyamini
                                                                                                         © Dubi Benyamini
                                                                        (Dissected and drawn by John G. Coutsis - Athens, Greece).
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           2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd   194                                            12/30/2021   4:29:27 PM  2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd   207                                   12/30/2021   4:30:07 PM
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