Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865

Soon after his return from the Malay Archipelago, Alfred Russel Wallace published one of his most signifcant papers. The paper used butterfies of the family Papilionidae as a model system for testing evolutionary hypotheses, and included a revision of the Papilionidae of the region, as well as the d...

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Autor principal: Mallet,James
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción 2009
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Acceso en línea:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382009000300005
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spelling oai:scielo:S0717-653820090003000052010-05-05Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865Mallet,James History of evolution mimicry species concepts geographic variation taxonomic infation island biology Lepidoptera Soon after his return from the Malay Archipelago, Alfred Russel Wallace published one of his most signifcant papers. The paper used butterfies of the family Papilionidae as a model system for testing evolutionary hypotheses, and included a revision of the Papilionidae of the region, as well as the description of some 20 new species. Wallace argued that the Papilionidae were the most advanced butterfies, against some of his colleagues such as Bates and Trimen who had claimed that the Nymphalidae were more advanced because of their possession of vestigial forelegs. In a very important section, Wallace laid out what is perhaps the clearest Darwinist defnition of the differences between species, geographic subspecies, and local ‘varieties.’ He also discussed the relationship of these taxonomic categories to what is now termed ‘reproductive isolation.’ While accepting reproductive isolation as a cause of species, he rejected it as a defnition. Instead, species were recognized as forms that overlap spatially and lack intermediates. However, this morphological distinctness argument breaks down for discrete polymorphisms, and Wallace clearly emphasised the conspecifcity of non-mimetic males and female Batesian mimetic morphs in Papilio polytes, and also in P. memnon, on the grounds of reproductive continuity. Finally, Wallace detailed how natural selection explains various forms of parallel evolution, including mimicry.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de ConcepciónGayana (Concepción) v.73 suppl.1 20092009-01-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382009000300005en10.4067/S0717-65382009000300005
institution Scielo Chile
collection Scielo Chile
language English
topic History of evolution
mimicry
species concepts
geographic variation
taxonomic infation
island biology
Lepidoptera
spellingShingle History of evolution
mimicry
species concepts
geographic variation
taxonomic infation
island biology
Lepidoptera
Mallet,James
Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
description Soon after his return from the Malay Archipelago, Alfred Russel Wallace published one of his most signifcant papers. The paper used butterfies of the family Papilionidae as a model system for testing evolutionary hypotheses, and included a revision of the Papilionidae of the region, as well as the description of some 20 new species. Wallace argued that the Papilionidae were the most advanced butterfies, against some of his colleagues such as Bates and Trimen who had claimed that the Nymphalidae were more advanced because of their possession of vestigial forelegs. In a very important section, Wallace laid out what is perhaps the clearest Darwinist defnition of the differences between species, geographic subspecies, and local ‘varieties.’ He also discussed the relationship of these taxonomic categories to what is now termed ‘reproductive isolation.’ While accepting reproductive isolation as a cause of species, he rejected it as a defnition. Instead, species were recognized as forms that overlap spatially and lack intermediates. However, this morphological distinctness argument breaks down for discrete polymorphisms, and Wallace clearly emphasised the conspecifcity of non-mimetic males and female Batesian mimetic morphs in Papilio polytes, and also in P. memnon, on the grounds of reproductive continuity. Finally, Wallace detailed how natural selection explains various forms of parallel evolution, including mimicry.
author Mallet,James
author_facet Mallet,James
author_sort Mallet,James
title Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
title_short Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
title_full Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
title_fullStr Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
title_full_unstemmed Alfred Russel Wallace and the Darwinian Species Concept: His Paper on the Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae) of 1865
title_sort alfred russel wallace and the darwinian species concept: his paper on the swallowtail butterflies (papilionidae) of 1865
publisher Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción
publishDate 2009
url http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382009000300005
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