Fwd: Re: SUPERSPECIES - SPECIES - SUBSPECIES

[Chris J. Durden]

>Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 12:43:47 -0600
>To: "Jean-Michel MAES" <jmmaes at ibw.com.ni>
>From: "Chris J. Durden" <drdn at mail.utexas.edu>
>Subject: Re: SUPERSPECIES - SPECIES - SUBSPECIES
>
>As working concepts I think of these terms as follows -
>
>A. Outside formal taxonomy but of use in communication.
>1. ab. (LAT. aberratio = a deviant) a deviant individual. May include an 
>individual deformed during development under physical or chemical accident 
>(GR. teras = a monster). May also be used for a very unusual individual 
>determined by expression of a very rare gene. The Calverly's Swallowtail 
>as been considered an ab. but at higher frequency would be a form of a 
>var. Futuronerva is a developmental ab. as are gynandromorphs.
>2. var. (LAT. varietas = a variety). May include individuals that 
>reproduce and pass on a minority genotype within an interbreeding 
>population. The characters of a variety are genetically determined and may 
>be physical, chemical or ethological. The different mimetic phenotypes of 
>the Dardanus Swallowtail, the white, yellow and orange phenotypes of many 
>Sulphurs, and other instances of balanced polymorphism involve vars.
>3. f. (LAT. forma = a shape, aspect or mould). May include individuals 
>that bear genes that are modified for non expression unless development 
>occurs under a special physical or chemical condition. Includes summer and 
>winter, wet and dry season forms of the same species. Sedentary and 
>migratory phenotypes of the Snout Butterfly are ff., as are the summer and 
>winter phenotypes of Comma Butterflies.
>[The transitional form of Gunder may be any of the above but is usually an 
>ab. It is excluded from Zoological Nomenclature].
>
>B. Ruled by Zoological Nomenclature as species group names.
>1. subsp. (subspecies). May include the majority of individuals in a 
>population that perpetuate themselves over a length of time. They are 
>adapted to the occupation of a particular niche that may be characterized 
>by single mode in physical and chemical conditions and may be described by 
>the community of species that consistently occur in this environmental 
>mode. All individuals interbreed freely. Recognizable abs, vars and forms 
>may occur within a subspecies. Where two subspecies meet they occupy 
>slightly different niches. The condition may be unstable with the majority 
>population oscillating from one subspecies to another with changing 
>climatic cycles. The Central Texas populations of *Basilarchia 
>archippus*/Viceroy are manifest in this manner. In the late 1960's to 
>early 1970's populations were predominantly of *B. a. archippus*/Plains 
>Viceroy. Since that time they have been of *B. a. watsoni*/Gulf Viceroy 
>except for one fall when there was a high frequency of var. "orange" that 
>was sympatric with a high breeding population of *Danaus eresimus 
>montezuma*. Rise in frequency of a var, to comprise the majority of the 
>population elevates this var. to a subspecies and brings it into 
>eligibility for formal nomenclature. Different subspecies should 
>interbreed freely where they meet. They may not have equal survival 
>success where they meet. This is what keeps one from swamping the other.
>[The exerge of Verity (MED.LAT. exerge = that portion of a coin on the 
>reverse, separated from the design by a line below which is the mint-mark 
>or city of origin.) is a minor subspecies within a greater subspecies. 
>This term is not recognized in contemporary taxonomy.]
>2. sp. (LAT. species = a kind). Includes all individuals that freely 
>interbreed when they meet in the wild. May include a number of subspecies 
>that occupy a number of similar niches. Two species are ideally 
>recognizable as distinct by a trained lepidopterist without resorting 
>to  the literature, except in case of a few cryptic species where 
>biochemistry or cytology is needed for distinction.
>3. supersp. (LAT. superspecies = a greater kind). Includes all individuals 
>that freely interbreed  in the laboratory. May include a number of species 
>occupying different niches or niche clusters.
>4. subgen. (subgenus). Includes a group of species that are considered by 
>splitters to form a genus but by lumpers to be just a species group.
>5. gen. (LAT. genus = class, sort, kind). Includes all individuals that 
>may be made to reproduce by devious means in the laboratory. Asses and 
>Horses, Cattle and Bison are or should be congeneric. Two genera are 
>recognizably distinct without resorting to the literature by trained 
>entomologists.
>6. supergen. (supergenus) Includes all species that are considered by the 
>most conservative lumpers to form a genus. Two supergenera are 
>recognizably distinct by trained biologists without resorting to the 
>literature.
>     I had better stop here before I get into even deeper trouble!
>..........Chris Durden
>
>At 08:04 AM 2/5/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>>Dear Ron Gatrelle,
>>
>>I am still using subspecies, but only in the sense of populations
>>geographically (and morphologically) distincts inside a species. I use the
>>species as the linnean definition, as a group of individuals who can
>>reproduce between then and give fertile progeny.
>>
>>In which sense can we use super-species ? Is this accepted by the code ?
>>Is it a promotion of the species - subspecies to super species - species ?
>>
>>Sincerely,
>>
>>Jean-Michel MAES
>>MUSEO ENTOMOLOGICO
>>AP 527
>>LEON
>>NICARAGUA
>>tel 505-3116586
>>jmmaes at ibw.com.ni
>>www.insectariumvirtual.com/termitero/termitero.htm#nicaragua
>>www.insectariumvirtual.com/lasmariposasdenicaragua.htm
>>www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/workers/JMaes.htm
>>www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/database2/honduintro.htm
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Ron Gatrelle <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>
>>To: Leps-l <Leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
>>Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 4:39 AM
>>Subject: one lump or two?
>>
>>
>> > The term "super-species" is becoming the lumpers way of splitting without
>> > stooping, or switching, or admitting that subspecies is what these things
>> > are. So instead of a lump of subspecies, we just invent a new
>> > rank -Superspecies - and now have a lump of species.
>> >
>> > By the way, this is not an original thought of mine. This was told to me
>> > just last year at the Lep. Soc. meeting by one of the Big Name people.
>> > Everybody probably has a book with his name on it. I doubt if this
>> > individual has ever been thought of as a splitter either.
>> > _____________________
>> > I wonder if 300 years from now (after the term subspecies has long been
>> > eliminated and forgotten) if the splitters will be those who still persist
>> > in believing in species? After all, species are just minor transitional
>> > forms that come and go between glaciations. Remember, dinosaurs did not go
>> > extinct, they just grew feathers. Parts is parts.
>> >
>> > The lumbers will be those who believe that SuberSpecies are really best
>> > understood when viewed as segments of the GiantGenera. Of course by this
>> > time the term subfamily will have vanished also and the families that
>> > remain will be few having been lumped into three possibly only two (for
>> > butterflies) and a whopping six for moths. Hey could happen, as the
>> > definite trend the last decade is toward bigger umbrellas.
>> >
>> > On the other hand, common names will have exploded, due to the Great Feud
>> > of 2230. NABA had gotten so big, that each state chapter decided to form
>> > their own common names committee and once that happened all hell broke
>> > loose, counties, cites. Males and females of the same GiantGenera even had
>> > there own names. Then there was the creation of NAB EM in 2269 as the
>> > cocaine drug lords had armed the poachers and collectors to... Oh, I
>>forgot
>> > to tell you why. As it turned out it was discovered that mtDNA in Monarch
>> > legs was a powerful human aphrodisiac!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No need to say more
>>on
>> > that.
>> >
>> > Sincerely, Msacras Evoli
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>>
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