Deja Vue

[Kenelm Philip]

	Ron Gatrelle pointed out that many people refer to butterfly
species by the specific epithet alone. While this should not be done in
publications, it is certainly what many people do in the field: "Look,
a distincta!" It's what I do--but then I am dealing with a rather
circumscribed fauna. What if you heard "Look, an alberta!"? If you knew
where you were, and in what habitat, you could then decide whether an
_Oeneis_ or a _Clossiana_ was being seen, but if you had heard about
someone else saying that in an unknown location, you might be a bit
uncertain... And 'alberta' is not the only case of North Amwrican but-
terflies from different genera having the same specific epithet.

	Now if people start referring to _subspecies_ by their subspecific
epithets alone, confusion will reign!

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu




 
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