Isocontours of the ratio f/f_max, where f is the spot covering factor and f_max = 0.00059 its maximum value, versus time and longitude for the ME models with Q = 8.0. The two dashed black lines mark longitudes 0° and 360° beyond which the distributions are repeated to easily follow spot migration. The dashed white line marks the longitude of the subcompanion point, which is fixed in this reference frame at ~257°. The contour levels are separated by Δf = 0.1f_max with yellow and orange indicating the maximum covering factor and dark blue the minimum. The dotted white lines trace the migration of the active regions associated with each active longitude (see the text).