Exist sub-species?????

[Byron J. Adams]

>Taxacomers
>
>What is your opinion to this question:
>
>-Do sub-species exist?
>- And if they do how are they defined?
>
>P. S. Can you cite the literature on this subject.
>
>Thanks
>Gerardo Tapia

Gerardo -

I don't think sub-species exist.  At least not independent of human
observation.  They do not behave like individuals (in the philosophical
sense), and thus it is difficult to argue that they have a metaphysical
reality.  Species are real (metaphysically), but I have yet to see any
convincing arguments that taxonomic categories above or below the level of
species have ontological reality, and are thus not arbitrary.  Some folks
may find the term useful, but I don't, and I doubt population geneticists
care for the term either.  That is, it doesn't matter if their units are
called subspecies, metaspecies, populations, metapopulations, semispecies,
etc., the results of their research efforts are unaffected.  However,
erroneously estimating the number and relationships among _real_ species
_can_ screw up research grounded in the comparative method.  Rank them if
you wish, but there are ways to describe variation within and among
populations less arbitrary than the information content of "sub-species."

Byron

For the _reality_ of species as self-delimiting individuals see:

Ghiselin, M.  1974.  A radical solution to the species problem.  Systematic
Zoology 23:536-544.

Ghiselin, M.  1987.  Species concepts, individuality, and objectivity.
Biology and Philosophy 2:127-143.

Hull, D. L.  1978.  A matter of individuality.  Philosphy of Science
45:335-360.
__________________________
Byron J. Adams
Department of Nematology
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University of California
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