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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
DGXOW
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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 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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