BSC

[Fred Rickson]

Well Curtis, now that you have had your philosophical rant that species are
worthless, would you please tell me how to identify the 12 or so different
looking ants I find on my similar-looking research trees.  I need to
discuss each group in terms of its distribution, abundance, and tree to
tree distribution, and the relationship between each group and several
pests on other same tree-look alikes.  And, I need to discuss these numbers
with folks working on the same-looking tree around the world in tropical
habitats.  The ants of each same-looking group do always look alike, but I
just grit my teeth and call them by some arbitrary same-name.  Enjoy (and
true but done in jest, Curtis).

Fred Rickson


----------
> From: Curtis Clark <jcclark at CSUPOMONA.EDU>
> To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
> Subject: BSC
> Date: Thursday, November 11, 1999 4:54 PM
>
> I think of the BSC as the "Bogus Species Concept"; there is a certain
> elegance to the basic idea, but in practice the failure to realize that
the
> ability to interbreed does not correlate with gene flow renders the
concept
> untenable even with vertebrates, much less with plants and a whole lot of
> other "ill-behaved" organisms.
>
> One might say that the concept is "speciose". :-)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
> Biological Sciences Department             Voice: (909) 869-4062
> California State Polytechnic University      FAX: (909) 869-4078
> Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                  jcclark at csupomona.edu