1. Species Concept What is a species?
A simple question has troubled biologist for more then two centuries
An agreement is still lacking
Species concepts are heterogeneous both in theory and practice
but……… a rose is a rose is a rose

2. but……… a rose is a rose is a rose

3. Rose harvesting

4. The ambiguity of the species category
Biological world is a continuum of organization
………..what exactly is an “individual” in shrubs, in a planarian worm?

5. The ambiguity of the species category
Biological species is a population whose members have potential to interbreed and produce fertile offspring
…………it applies only to bisexual organisms, excluding asexual ones, and overemphasizes between-population reproductive system……..

6. Process and Pattern Concepts
Process of segregation, isolation and recognition responsible for the differentiation of population
Pattern: comparison of the product of those differentiation process

7. Typological species concepts, based on “essential” features
Carl von Linne`
Evolutionary theory: Darwinism
Polytypic species: geographical variations, varieties, subspecies, trinomens, differed only in detailed coloration or other superficial characters

8. Why define a species?
Declining species populations increasingly vulnerable to extinction
Did we lose a “species” , when we make a mistake in defining subspecies and species?
Is it the best interest for species conservation to introduce individuals from remote population into threatened local population?

9. The definition of a species is also critical as legal issue, as it relates to efforts to preserve habitat to save threatened endangered species
At the end: morphological species is a classical still alive, useful and necessary before a new one system with robust and accepted species concept