Résumé
The genus Ophrys L. is a complex genus for which the traditional morphological approach is not sufficient. A multidisciplinary approach allowing an integrative systematics is thus needed, including reproductive biology and as far as possible molecular biology. Ophrys massiliensis Viglione & Vela was first described in 1999 from populations living in Calanques of Marseille. Several indications surrounding Nice, Toulon and Montpellier encouraged discoverers to investigate in these areas. The usual presence of morphs closely related to Ophrys aranifera Huds., including within populations from Marseille, have promoted the hypothesis that the plant could be a subspecies of Ophrys aranifera. The Marseille taxon has been morphologically studied on its whole French area, and all related taxa were partially studied too. The results have allowed to validate the subspecific status and to submit a new nomenclatural combination for the Marseille ophrys: Ophrys aranifera subsp. massiliensis (Viglione & Vela) Vela. A multidisciplinary bibliographic synthesis and evolutionary scenario about the two subspecies Ophrys aranifera Huds. subsp. aranifera and Ophrys aranifera subsp. massiliensis are given, as well as data on one of their common pollinators, the hymenoptera Andrena nigroaenea.