Notes on the Melitaea ornata Christoph, 1893, complex in the Levant (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae) including new synonymy and observations on lectotype designations for Melitaea phoebe dorae Graves, 1925 Author Russell, Peter J. C. Oakmeadow, Wessex Avenue, East Wittering, West Sussex PO 20 8 NP, U. K .. Author Tennent, W. John Scientific Associate, Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum London SW 7 5 BD, UK. & Honorary Associate, Oxford Museum of Natural History, Parks Road, Oxford OX 1 3 PW, UK text Zootaxa 2023 2023-10-10 5353 3 276 284 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5353.3.5 journal article 271667 10.11646/zootaxa.5353.3.5 d230c297-52ad-494c-9a02-7b244a9b46fb 1175-5326 8427459 6BF30298-8FCA-4BB6-A18D-143EDE79899A Lectotype of Melitaea telona Fruhstorfer, 1908 The present authors designated a ♁ lectotype specimen for Melitaea phoebe telona Fruhstorfer, 1908 ( Tennent & Russell, 2023 ) in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris. As can be seen from an illustration ( Tennent & Russell, 2023: 133 , fig. 1a), the abdomen was detached from the specimen before the designation was made, and was not dissected ( Fig. 5 ). Benyamini(2023:86 ,fig.2)illustrated the♁genitalia,apparently of this specimen,labelled“6270– LECTOTYPE M. telona /Jerusalem, Palestine ( Israel ), VDP = 0.740mm ”, although there is no mention of either ‘Jerusalem’ or ‘Israel’ on the labels of the lectotype ( Tennent & Russell, 2023: 133 , fig. 1a); nor is there any acknowledgement of the MNHN. The Curator of Lepidoptera at MNHN acknowledged that the abdomen was loaned to Benyamini in 2022 (Rodolphe Rougerie, in litt . to the first author, 23 May 2023 ). We believe that the number “6270” refers to a drawing by John Coutsis (see similar numbers in Oorschot & Coutsis (2014) , accompanying genitalia drawings by Coutsis), as it is in the same numerical sequence as other numbered drawings figured by Benyamini (2023: 86 , Fig. 2 ).