> The subspecies concept: has it outlived its usefulness?

I think another question is whether the initial subspecies (race) concept was formulated with enough critical evaluation. E.O Wilson argued back in the early 50's that: 

>"Because the geographical race has a demonstrably flimsy conceptual basis, it is unfortunate that it has become through the years a deeply rooted taxonomic resort. That the race has become so integral a part of our systematics is due largely to the circumstance that, under the more hierarchical-sounding alias "subspecies," it has established itself gradually but ever more firmly as a unit that could and should be dignified with a Latin name."

Wilson went on to say"

>"If it is now clear that the subspecies trinomial is fast becoming an unquestioned and traditional fixture, it is equally clear, at least to us, that in its assumed function as a formal means of registering geographical variation within the species it tends to be both illusory and superfluous."

Wilson's challenge that "registering geographical variation within the species [it] tends to be both illusory and superfluous" is being proven with the advancement of genomic data that are challenging some long-standing subspecies. In Africa, there's now data challenging the subspecies scutellata, the savanna bee, and monticola the mountain bee. 

The authors of the study below suggest that their analysis using both mtDNA and microsatellite loci does not support a subspecies difference between scutellata and monticola. They suggest they're the same subspecies and that the morphologic differences are a result of "phenotypic-plasticity” rather than genes. The authors further suggest that the African coastal bee litorea may also be the same subspecies. 

As we have discussed on this list, in the US, which is one large breeding range, subspecies like ligustica and carnica have bred into a common bee stock which is about equal parts of both. Even though race has a lasting image in the minds of beekeepers and they are not likely to let go anytime soon.  


>Distinct subspecies or phenotypic plasticity? Genetic and morphological differentiation of mountain honey bees in East Africa
Karl Gruber, Caspar Scho€ning, Marianne Otte, Wanja Kinuthia & Martin Hasselmann


>The Subspecies Concept and Its Taxonomic Application
E. O. Wilson and W. L. Brown, Jr.
Systematic Zoology
Vol. 2, No. 3 (Sep. 1953), pp. 97-111

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