Species vs. Subspecies

[Chris J. Durden]

Norbert,
    If they look different call them different until there is some 
compelling evidence to refute this.
    It seems strange that people who declare that we are losing species to 
extinction every year at the various published rates, should be so hesitant 
to recognize the magnificent diversity and number of species that we 
actually have.
    I suppose their cups are half empty.
    Mine is half full!
..........Chris Durden

At 01:30 PM 8/14/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>The perennial problem. I will refrain from mentioning the specifics to
>protect the innocent and also because I am more interested in reaction to
>the logic than the specifics of the case. But the case is real. Here is the
>scenario: two taxa, allopatric by about 300 kilometres where they come
>closest; they look plainly different and they have structural differences in
>the genitalia. Seems like the normal taxonomic practice would be to rank
>them as separate species. In fact these two taxa are treated in current
>literature as subspecies.  I am interested in any thoughts on why different
>looking butterflies with structural differences would be treated as
>subspecies when the normal practice is to go the species route.
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
>Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
>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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