Subspecies

In zoology, as in other branches of biology, subspecies is the rank immediately subordinate to a species. As an aside, do note that in botany a subspecies is only one of the ranks that will get a ternary name (see there), while in bacteriology, the terms subspecies and variety are usually interchangeable, see ICNB. The following applies to zoology only.

Related Topics:
Species - Ternary name - ICNB

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In zoology, the scientific name of a subspecies is the binomen followed immediately by a subspecific name, e.g.

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Homo sapiens sapiens. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th edition, 2000) does not attempt to codify any "infrasubspecific entities".

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It should be noted that if a subspecies is indicated by the repetition of the specific name, it is known as the nominate subspecies. Thus Motacilla alba alba is the nominate subspecies of White Wagtail, Motacilla alba.

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