M. phoebe mandarina Seitz, 1909 [TL Mongolia] a specimen of unspecified sex figured by Seitz (plate 65, fig. h, 1) is large and heavily marked, particularly the forewing post-discal black square spots. Higgins (1941: 340) suggested that it was a form very similar to the taxon changaica (see above) and his illustrations (Higgins 1941: plate 14, figs 7 & 8), show a similarity in spite of the large disparity in size. Van Oorschot & Coutsis (2014: 60) indicated that there were two female specimens in the Zoologisches Museum in Berlin (D), they did not illustrate either but placed this form under M. phoebe. The underside submarginal markings of specimens illustrated by Seitz and Higgins are curved and touch the intervening veins clearly indicating an association with M. phoebe, agreeing with van Oorschot & Coutsis (2014: 60) and Russell & Tennent (2016: note 49).

Published as part of Russell, Peter J. C., Lukhtanov, Vladimir A. & Tennent, W. John, 2022, Reassessment of the status of some European and Asian Melitaea taxa described as subspecies of Melitaea phoebe ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), with designations of lectotypes where appropriate (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), pp. 25-38 in Zootaxa 5141 (1) on page 30, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5141.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/6577627