As delimited here, Melitaea includes the genus Mellicta, making the subtribe Melitaeina monotypic (but see below).

For long, it was believed that Mellicta was a junior objective synonym of Melitaea, sharing the same type species (the Glanville fritillary, M. cinxia).

This was in error, however; the type species of Mellicta is actually the heath fritillary (M. athalia), making the two taxa junior subjective synonyms and thus eligible to be separated again.

However, several other taxa are in fact objective synonyms (or at least have type specimens belonging to the same biological species) of Melitaea and Mellicta – Schoenis and the preoccupied Lucina and Melinaea for the former, Athaliaeformia for the latter.

As long as it is not fully known which species groups and/or subgenera warrant recognition as full genera, they are all retained in the present genus.