Mosquito Systematics Vol. 8(3) 1976 221 AnopheZes amictus Edwards and the Subspecies Concept

amictus hiZZi Woodhill and Lee, is briefly reviewed. The taxon is promoted to species rank. The subspecies is by no means universally accepted as a useful taxonomic category (Mayr, 1969: 42); but those who do accept it seem agreed that i;t is best reserved for a single, general case: where populations known or reasonably suspected to be capable of interbreeding are prevented from doing so regularly by physical or temporal barriers. Obviously, there should also be marked diff-erences between attributes of those populations, to make it worthwhile calling them by different names. In the case of contemporaneous populations, which is what concerns me here, the barriers are usually geographic and their persistence not guaranteed. The category subspecies thus allows us formally to recognise significant taxonomic diversity without compromising the concept of the "biolog-ical species', and protects the integrity of a classification against geographic accidents. Whether all that is defensible, in theory or practice, is beside the poin