BSC/PSC

[Kenelm Philip]

> The result was the current wave of long overdue splits of species in
> order to recognize truly biological species.

Chris Durden, and I, and no doubt many others on this list were raised on
the Biological Species Concept (BSC)--but that is no longer the end of the
story. Now we have the Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC), and the split-
ting can go even further. It is now possible for taxonomists to talk about
two 'species' which interbreed freely, but have different DNA--and state
that these 'species' have merely failed to evolve isolating mechanisms.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave..."

We are living in interesting times, taxonomically speaking--and they may
get even more 'interesting' before things settle down.

Ken Philip
fn...@uaf.edu

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[Paul Cherubini]

One way to find out for sure is to see what would happen
if a group of their members on a butterflying through
binoculars watching trip encountered a collector in the field
catching monarchs with a huge net like this:
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/net.jpg

then hauling the live butterflies away in the bed of an old
low life pickup truck like this:
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/truck.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/styro.jpg

with the intent of selling the live butterflies as
breeding stock to companies that breed monarchs for a purpose
like this: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/release.jpg

Would these NABA members be content to just watch
this collector through their binoculars or would they be
inclined to take some sort of aggressive verbal or physical
action to stop the collecting activity?

Paul Cherubini