The Species Problem Arises 203
c) Coenospecies: A population-complex the constituents of which group them-
selves in nature in species units of lower magnitude on account of vitality
and sterility limits having all, however, a common origin so far as morpho-
logical, cytological or experimental facts indicate such and origin. ...^70
Turesson criticizes the Linnaean conception of species for not helping us to deter-
mine the natural limitations of species. He says that the Linnaean notion covers
several senses, de ned above, and that the
... existence in nature of units of these different orders also makes it a logical impos-
sibility to reach one standard de nition of the “species.”This is, incidentally, the rst use of the term “agamospecies” I have encountered, so
he may very well have coined it. As far as I can tell, Turesson does not require that
agamospecies cannot also be ecospecies or coenospecies.
Mayr accuses Turesson of being typological, and claims that he gives the impres-
sion of plant species comprised “a mosaic of ecotypes rather than as an aggregate of
variable populations,”^71 but this is not how contributors to the 1940 New Systematics
volume read him. Turrill notes:
He [Turesson] has clearly shown not only that the species, as usually accepted by the
taxonomist, is a complex assemblage of biotypes, but also that the species population
varies in its biotype composition with habitat conditions.^72(^70) Turesson 1929, 332–333.
(^71) Mayr 1982, 277.
(^72) Turrill 1940, 52.
Ecophene
Ecotype
Ecospecies
Coenospecies