species concepts Swallowtails)

[Bruce Walsh]

Doug raises the interesting "Phylogenetic Species Concept" (PSC)
introduced by my former colleague Mike Donoghue, who left the sunny (and
Lepidoptera-rich) Arizona deserts for the cool and clammy confines of Harvard.  The
problem with the PSC is that it is so open-ended, with the character(s)
one uses to define species groups being open to the investigator. Ideally,
one would like to have a standard set in advance of looking at a species
group, so the investigator bias is minimal.

The plain-old biological species concept (BSC) is simply based on genetic
exchange --- members within a group that can exchange genetic information
are members of the same species.  Since we know have the ability to
examine the genome (the complete genetic information) of any organism, we can
look for signatures of genetic exchange (or lack thereof).   Hence, the
powerful genetic technologies now avaliable make the BSC the way to go.

Cheers

Bruce

PS  -- neither the PSC or BSC have anything to do with collecting, or
banning collecting, so the lifetime of this discussion will likely be short.