This review considers a fascinating, from a zoogeographical viewpoint, group of closely related species: Melitaea lutko Evans, 1932, M. timandra Coutsis & van Oorschot, 2014, M. mimetica Higgins, 1940 stat. rev. and M. shahvarica sp. nov. It is a taxonomical and geographical review of these species, and data on the biology of M. shahvarica sp. nov. and nominate subspecies of M. timandra are discussed. A new species, M. shahvarica sp. nov. from Shahvar Mt. (Iran), and a new subspecies, M. timandra binaludica subsp. nov. from Kuh-e-Binalud Mts (Iran), are described. The specific structure of the group given in previous publications is critically evaluated. Hypotheses about a possible phylogenesis of the study group are provided.

A new species, recently misinterpreted as Callophrys mystaphia Miller, 1913, Callophrys mystaphioides Krupitsky & Kolesnichenko sp. n., is described from Central Iran (Esfahan Province). The new species differs from C. mystaphia in the combination of external characters and morphology of genitalia. Possible relations of C. mystaphia—species group with other Palaearctic Callophrys are discussed.

Neolycaena enkhnasani sp. n. is described from the Dzhungarian Gobi desert. The food plant is Halimodendron halodendron (Fabacea). The new species is distinguished from the related taxa known from East Kazakhstan by small size, dense gray suffusion on the hindwing underside, a delicate and partly reduced submarginal underside pattern as well as the characters of the genitalia: the shape of the valva in males and the shape of the antrum in females. Important new data about the distribution and distinctions of N. zaisana (Zhdanko, 2013) and N. balchaschensis Zhdanko, 1998 are published together with photos of the genitalia of all the three taxa.

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