PROCEEDINGS: BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY 237 



Sometimes I have deliberately used a trinomial when the data at 

 hand really indicated a binomial. Let me explain by an example. 

 The genus Leptopoma has probably twenty phylogenetic stalks or super- 

 species in the PhiUppine Archipelago. Some of these groups have 

 in the past been considered a single widely distributed very variable 

 species. The abundant material which is rapidly accumulating in 

 the U. S. National Museum proves conclusively that ever}^ island has 

 its distinct form, and the larger islands, where faunal barriers exist, 

 may have two or more. In some cases, intergradations exist, while 

 in others they do not. Now the rule would say, designate the distinct 

 forms as species and those with intergrades as subspecies, but how 

 much more rational to consider the entire complex under one specific, 

 name and the various races under a trinomial — ^at least for the present 

 until material from the entire range showing all possible phases of 

 these groups will have been examined, for by so doing one has the 

 advantage of knowing at once that the organism in question is the 

 Leptopoma nitidum representative of Luzon, or a member of the Lep- 

 topoma gonio stoma group." 



Mr. A. N. Caudell as an entomologist said: In his work on the 

 Orthoptera he recognized two grades below the species, that is the 

 geographical race, or subspecies, and the variety. He gave the follow- 

 ing definitions : 



Species. A group of individuals separable from allied groups by 

 appreciable external morphological characters of a sufficiently stabilized 

 nature to prohibit a general mergence through variation, based on a 

 biological foundation sufficiently firm to assure breeding true to nature, 

 and the production of fertile progeny. 



Geographical race. An assemblage of individuals of a species dis- 

 tinguishable from each other, and from the dominant form, by ap- 

 preciable external morphological characters and occupying different, 

 but adjacent, geographical regions, at the junction of which complete 

 mergence through variation occurs. In other words, races are incipient 

 species originating through variation caused by diverse environmental 

 conditions due to geographical distribution. 



Variety. Individuals of a species or of a race varying more or less 

 from the typical in external morphological or colorational characters, 

 not with relation to geographical distribution and subject to complete 

 integration through variation. 



Each of these groups was briefly discussed and emphasis was given 

 the fact of this being the present personal opinion of the speaker and 

 not intended in any way to represent the views of entomologists in 

 general. It was admitted that for use in a broader way, especially 

 in higher zoological groups, the definition of species should be broadened 

 to include physiological characters, and also, probably, biological 

 features. 



Dr. S. F. Blake discussed the question from the botanical aspect: 

 A subspecies in botany, as in zoology, is ordinarily distinguished from 

 a species by the fact that it intergrades with a related form or forms. 



