Subspecies

subspecies

[¦səb′spē·shēz]

(systematics)

A geographically defined grouping of local populations which differs taxonomically from similar subdivisions of species.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Subspecies

 

a taxonomic category of animals and plants below a species. A subspecies is a group of geographically or, less frequently, ecologically or geochronologically isolated populations of a species, in which all or the majority of individuals differ in one or more morphological characters from individuals of other populations of the same species.

The name of a subspecies is formed by adding a third word, or epithet, to the species name. For example, the Middle Asian fox Vulpes vulpes flavescens is a subspecies of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). In botany and, sometimes, zoology, subsp. or ssp. is written between the species name and the name of the subspecies.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.