( 430 ) 



tlic contrast existing between the geograpbical variety (= subspecies) and tlie 

 u<)n-geograi)liieal variety (= individual and seasonal forms) has been demonstrated 

 recently in Lejiidoptera in another jilaec,* we mention here merely that the 

 combination of characters in a subspecies is essentially the same as in a species, 

 the difference being one of degree more than of kind. An overlapping of characters 

 often takes jilace in subspecies, showing that these races have not attained to 

 that kind of complete separation which exists between synpatric species. t 



In dealing uomenclatorially with the varieties it appears to us highly 

 advisable to emphasize also in the nomenclatorial formula the contrast which 

 exists between the essential variety, or the subsjiccies, and the lower-grade varieties. 

 This, we think, is best attained by the formula first employed for the geographical 

 race by another Icpidopterist, Drury, in 1773, and adopted during the last twenty 

 years by a great many systematists. In this formula the name of the subspecies 

 follows directly after the name of the species, jnst as this comes immediately 

 after the name of the genus, no explanatory term, subsp. (= subspecies), or var. 

 geogr. (= varietas geographica), or anything of that kind being put in between 

 the specific and snbspecific names : Papilio polyxenes americm meaning Papilio 

 jiol'/re/ies subsp. (= var. geogr.) amcricus. Entomologists appear to be rather 

 reluctant to adopt this simple Drnryan formula. 



However, we repeat that the main point is not the nomenclatorial formula 

 by which species and varieties are recorded, but the recognition of the existence 

 in nature of species contrasting with a higher grade of varfety (subspecies = 

 geograjihical race), and this contrasting with a lower grade of variety (seasonal and 

 individual forms). Linne rendered chaos into order ; let it be the duty of tiie 

 modern systematist to follow him by bringing order into the chaos of varieties. 



A geograjihically variable species consists of at least two subspecies. For 

 instance, the Colombian specimens of I'apiUo backus, which species occurs from 

 Colombia to Bolivia, are different from the more southern individuals. We have 

 therefore a northern and a southern subspecies. The opinion still held by many 

 collectors and describers that the (Colombian form is the "species" (the " Stammart " 

 of German describers), because Felder gave a name to it some forty years ago, 

 while the more southern form is the " variety of it," on account of its name being 

 of a later date, should be abandoned as utterly unscientific. All the subspecies, 

 inclusive of the first described one, are co-ordinate ; the entire series of (two or 

 more) subspecies is the species, t 



As regards the nomenclature of subs])ecies we have first to repeat that, if the 

 stability of names is one of the iirincipal aims of nomenclatorial rules, the first name 

 given to any member of a species must be adopted as the name of the entire species. 

 For instance, though Linno described the black female of a Nearctic Swallowtail as a 



* ''Der Gcgcns.atz zwischon j^cop'apluschcr und nichtgcogr.apliischcr Variation, "in yCfituchr, Wins. Zi>i>l, 

 Ixxxiii. pp. 151—210 (1!I05). 



t Tlic principal criterion of Ibc conception "species" is tliat ."siToeics can exist together without 

 fusing, no other barrier keeping them apart tlian their own organisation. 



t Lorenz, in isy2, called the series of sulispecics constituting a si)ecies the Formciilircis of thi 

 species. A l''ormvnhrt'is is Llierefore the same as our species. 'I'lie term tWincnkreis is very convenient. 

 Unfortunately il has later hecji employed by llerr Kleinsclimiill in a .slightly widened sense, closely 

 .■dlied species being sometiuK's ineluded in the lhrmcn/:rci-<. In this sen.'-e the Fvrmiiitinie is a kind 

 of half-caste between species and .subgenus, ami the Linnean binomiiud specilic formula bcuig employed 

 for it by Kleinschmidt obscures the distinction between .species and uon-species. The older delinitiun 

 of the term by I.orenz was preciso, correct, and has priority ; there is therefore no reason for modifying 

 the moaning of the term. 



