Editing Androphagi (section)

===Migration towards the forest steppe===
From the Caucasian steppe, the tribe of the Royal Scythians expanded to the south, following the coast of the [[Caspian Sea]] and arrived in the [[North Caucasus|Ciscaucasian]] steppes, from where they settled in eastern [[South Caucasus|Transcaucasia]] until the early 6th century BC.{{sfn|Sulimirski|1954|page=282}}{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993a|p=127-154}}{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=89-109}}{{sfn|Melyukova|1990|pages=97-110}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=560-564}}{{sfn|Phillips|1972}}{{sfn|Barnett|1991|pages=333-356}}

The Royal Scythians were finally expelled from West Asia in the {{c.|600s BC}},{{sfn|Jacobson|1995|p=38}} after which, beginning in the later 7th and lasting throughout much of the 6th century BC, the majority of the Scythians migrated from Ciscaucasia into the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe|Pontic Steppe]], which became the centre of Scythian power.{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|pages=169-171}}{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=564-568}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000b}}

The retreat of the Royal Scythians from West Asia into the Pontic steppe pushed a Scythian splinter group to the north, into the region of Donets-Kramatorsk, where they formed the Vorskla and Sula-Donets groups of the Scythian culture,{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|pages=179}} of which the Donets group corresponded to the [[Melanchlaeni]], the Sula group to the Androphagi,{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=185}} and the Vorskla group to the [[Budini]],{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=187}} with all of these groups remaining independent from the [[Scythians|Scythians proper]].{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=185}} This splinter group arrived in the forest-steppe region in part from the Kuban region, but for the most from northern Ciscaucasia.{{sfn|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=587}}

Of these groups, the Androphagi and the Melanchlaeni were closely related tribes.{{sfn|Sulimirski|1985|p=186}}