Taxonomic Tidbit

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

The topic of "conservative taxonomy" (in relation to butterflies) came up in
a recent discussion with a colleague.  So I got to wondering what this
really means and also the probably various meanings it has to different
people.  One notion of conservative taxonomy is to lump everything that
looks even remotely similar unless there is a genitalic difference and then
split the lumps later after exhaustive research. The flip side of this
conservative taxonomy coin would be to be conservative by accepting the
taxonomic placement of each taxon as described by the original author and
then lump the splits after exhaustive research. Both views seem to be
"conservative". What other ways can we look at this issue of conservative
taxonomy ??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca


 
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