ochlospecies; my 2 cents' worth

[Tim Dickinson]

hi all--- i recently attempted a review of species concepts in
relation to their utility in dealing with plant groups in which
apomixis occurs. rightly or wrongly i chose not to discuss
ochlospecies because i felt that the term was used in a purely
descriptive way, with no underlying theoretical justification (as
was the case with the biological SC, various phylogenetic SCs,
etc.).

that said, it is a useful and interesting term that i should have
perhaps included since in many instances we don't have enuf data
with which to choose from those theory-laden terms. for example, my
colleague jim eckenwalder (botany, university of toronto) used the
term in his 1980 paper on the taxonomy of west indian cycads
(Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 61:  701-722) to "...describe and
accept variability without formalizing it in a necessarily arbitrary
infraspecific hierarchy..." because "...the variation pattern within
Z. pumila seems taxonomically irresolvable..."

eckenwalder's paper cites whitmore (1975; "Natural variation and its
taxonomic treatment within tropical tree species as seen in the Far
East" in Burley & Styles' Tropical trees variation, breeding and
conservation (Linnean Society Symposium Series Number 2)) who
referred to three kinds of species (pp.  30-31):  (1) "Discrete,
isolated and morphologically isolated species..." either restricted
to a single habitat or ecologically differentiated; (2) "Species
with distinct infraspecific taxa." and (3) "...virtually intractable
to taxonomy, ...complex, reticulate variationwithout discontinuities
throughout a whole or part of a species.  Such species cannot be
satisfactorily subdivided.  For them, I reintroduce the term
ochlospecies, originally proposed for African examples by White
(1962)." and went on to suggest that BSC impossible to apply to rain
forest trees.  (ref.  Eckenwalder 1980)

my notes on the original paper by white are as follows:  (ref.
Eckenwalder 1980; cf.  Whitmore 1975) ochlospecies defined, p.  79:
"...(ocloV [this is supposed to be greek], an irregular crowd, a
mob).  As the secondary meaning of ocloV is 'trouble' or 'annoyance'
this choice seems to be particularly apprpriate." e.g. is Diospyros
mespiliformis - author's usage:  ochlo-species

cheers, ---tad.

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<Tim Dickinson (tim.dickinson at utoronto.ca, timd at rom.on.ca)
<Vascular Plant Herbarium (TRT)
<Center for Biodiversity & Conservation Biology
<Royal Ontario Museum
<100 Queen's Park
<Toronto  ON  Canada  M5S 2C6
<Phone (416) 586 8032
<
<See also:
<http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/faculty/dickinson/
<and other sites with links there.
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