<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Just an FYI from an ICZN Commissioner:</p>
<p>The ICZN regulates names from superfamily down to subspecies,
but:</p>
<p>(1) any names proposed or used below subspecies are unregulated -
meaning a presently-recognized variety, form, or other
infrasubspecific entity is <b>nomenclaturally unavailable</b> -
technically, it has neither an authorship, nor a date, and is not
subject to the rules of priority. Names proposed for "forms" or
"varieties" published before 1960 can <b>sometimes</b> be
available, but only under very specific circumstances. So, for the
monarch, "form nivosus" should never be given with an authorship
or date, <b>or italicized</b>, as it is not actually a
species-rank name, and under the Code only species-rank (species
and subspecies) and genus-rank (genus and subgenus) names are ever
italicized. <br>
</p>
<p>(2) the Code does not provide a <b>biological</b> definition of
the various ranks, even though it does limit the ranks it governs.
A species, or a subspecies, is whatever a taxonomist says it is,
and all the Code defines is whether that entity's name has been
properly published, and how it is to be treated once it has been
published (spelling, authorship, date, etc.).</p>
<p>That being said, in my experience the most common use of
subspecies in taxonomy is for populations that are
allopatric/allochronic, with characters that reliably distinguish
them, but for which the presumption is that were they to ever
secondarily come into contact, they would produce fully fertile
offspring. If there is routine gene flow between two populations,
or no characters distinguishing them, they would not generally
conform to this definition. In that respect, the question
regarding monarchs would be whether a person could be given a
monarch specimen with no collection data, and still tell
definitively (by DNA or some other technique) which population it
belonged to? If the answer is yes, then how many distinct
populations can be identified? That would give the upper limit on
assignable subspecies.</p>
<p>Peace,<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html">https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
</body>
</html>