names/systematics

[DR. JAMES ADAMS]

Dear Jim and listers,

Jim Kruse wrote:
> I await (expect) flames... but tell me what a subspecies is. I'm not even
> sure what a species is and I consider myself a systematist (and no, I'm
> not a lone idiot. The concept of species is an active, persisting debate).

No flames.  I don't know that I even believe that a subspecies is a 
real entity.  I do believe that species are real entities, but am not 
able to tell you what that encompasses (as what makes a species may 
be different in different groups of organisms -- plants do some 
things genetically in a vastly different way that most animals, and 
so specific boundaries are often designated differently).  I detest 
the overproliferation of subspecific names, especially in 
lepidopterological literature.  I am fully convinced that many 
"subspecies" are named without understanding the concept, or what 
other "subspecies" of a species represent.  Euphydryas "subspecies", 
for instance, should be trashed.  The variation within populations 
clearly overlaps broadly that of others, and includes the modal 
specimens of a variety of other "subspecies".  Speyeria is almost as 
bad in the west.

Oh well, I just can't help myself . . .

No promises that this will be the last I'll say.

             James

Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA  30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
U of Michigan's President James Angell's 
  Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"