ON RESEARCH AND ENTOMOLOGICAL EDUCATION V: A SPECIES (C)ONCEPT FOR FIREFLYERS, AT THE BENCH AND IN OLD FIELDS, AND BACK TO THE WISCONSIAN GLACIER

Abstract

There is no lack of species concepts available for consideration, nor of discussion and speculation about what a species concept should be and do, but nothing seen in recent literature is suitable nor adequately clear and descriptive for firefly naturalist/taxonomists as they begin their studies. A reasonable ad hoc solution combines the now-classical and practical omnispective view of the phenotype for pragmatic utility, with a composite of early 20th-century elements and theoretical (notional) fragments from various nominal "Concepts," particularly the Biological Species Concept, and places natural selection and inevitable population divergence into foremost consideration, to provide a microevolutionary expectation of firefly populations in nature. A short history of about 18,000 years is introduced because of the possible existence of geologically dated, clear evidence of population changes that may be recognizable in fireflies living in regions that came under the influence of the last major NA glacier.