The Conceptual History ofMelitaea nycteisDoubleday, [1847] (Nymphalidae), with the Designation of a Lectotype and a Portrait of Its Collector, David Dyson (1823–1856)

Abstract

Long thought to be based on a holotype, evidence indicates that the concept of the nominal taxon Melitaea nycteis Doubleday was actually based on four female syntypes, which were collected in Ohio in 1843 by the English naturalist David Dyson. A lectotype is designated to stabilize usage and establish a sole name-bearing type of this nominal taxon. The type locality is suggested to be the vicinity of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. A previously unknown portrait of David Dyson, depicting him collecting Lepidoptera, was discovered in the possession of his great-grandnephew and is reproduced for the first time.