An interesting side discussion started up from my earlier post and I thought it might be<div>worth discussion on the general list. I expect there will be a number of different opinions on</div><div>this subject which might prove enlightening.</div>

<div><br></div><div>What is a species?</div><div><br></div><div>The way I have constructed my system I consider species to be real things too which different</div><div>taxonomic hypothesis are applied.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

<div>A collector or curator would then decide which species concept they believe is the best match</div><div>for their specimen or group of specimens.</div><div><br></div><div>Those individuals would then be tied to a particular species concept. (Not necessarily a specific genus species)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Statements or properties could then be associated with particular species concepts.</div><div><br></div><div>For instance:</div><div><br></div><div>This Culicidoid species concept is a member of the Anophelinoid Group and thereby inherits</div>
<div>the following properties:</div><div><br></div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp;Maxillary palps about as long as proboscus, not strongly recurved</div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp;Scutellum evenly rounded</div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp;Scutellum seta more or less evenly distributed</div>
<div>&nbsp;&nbsp;Most like diagram http://.....</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>I am not sure that you could make useful statements like this if specimens are abstracted as an array of</div><div>names, and if species are not real things that are separate from individual taxonomic hypothesis.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Note I use Anophelinoid rather than Anophelinae to avoid tying this group of morphological characters to</div><div>a specific taxonomic hypothesis.</div><div><br></div><div>Under this model genera, families and subspecies (as they are now used) are thought of as human constructed</div>
<div>clades and are not real in the same sense as species are real. A species exists whether or not a human</div><div>has chosen to describe and name it.</div><div><br></div><div>There also seems to be a difference in how ecologists, medical entomologists and taxonomists think of species.</div>
<div>The former tend to view species as real things while the later see them as a human constructed grouping, where</div><div>the taxonomic hypothesis is the species concept.</div><div><br></div><div>From the perspective of the semantic web, species concepts defined in these different ways have different</div>
<div>meanings and may not be able to be merged directly. At least that is my current thinking ....</div><div><br></div><div>How do others think of species?</div><div>---------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Pete DeVries<br>Department of Entomology<br>University of Wisconsin - Madison<br>445 Russell Laboratories<br>
1630 Linden Drive<br>Madison, WI 53706<br>------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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