Given the recent conclusions on this topic, especially that a form is "below" subspecies (and not formally recognised in some quarters), I still had something niggling at me and have just come across this in E.B.Ford's classic work,
Butterflies, which addresses this concern:
E.B.Ford wrote:We sometimes find that a single independent sub-species may have a discontinuous distribution, having become broken up into separate populations since it was evolved. One or more of these may sometimes be distinguished from the others by constant features which are but slight and involve a single character only. These are conveniently termed forms: clearly they are potential sub-species in the same sense that such sub-species are potential species. They may be distinguished by a name with the abbreviation f. (= form), added after that of the sub-species. Thus, a distinct sub-species of the Mountain Ringlet, Erebia epiphron, is restricted to Britain. This is called mnemon Haw., and it is divided into two dissimilar populations, inhabiting the Lake District and part of the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. Specimens from these two regions are similar except that those from Scotland are consistently a little the larger and brighter, and they have been called the form scotica Cooke. We can therefore sub-divide our British Mountain Ringlet as Erebia epiphron mnemon f. scotica from Scotland and E. epiphron mnemon f. mnemon from the Lake District. The name of the sub-species is to be repeated for the typical form in the same way that the specific name is repeated for the typical sub-species.
This makes an awful lot of sense and this convention for naming forms is entirely consistent with the conventions used for naming subspecies. I therefore intend to refine some of the wording in the species descriptions accordingly. I believe (in the British Isles) we have the following. And feel free to tell me you already thought that
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
:
Colias croceus croceus f. croceus (Clouded Yellow)
Colias croceus croceus f. helice (Clouded Yellow)
Polygonia c-album c-album f. c-album (Comma)
Polygonia c-album c-album f. hutchinsoni (Comma)
Araschnia levana levana f. levana (Map)
Araschnia levana levana f. prorsa (Map)
Argynnis aglaja aglaja f. aglaja (Dark Green Fritillary)
Argynnis aglaja aglaja f. scotica (Dark Green Fritillary)
Argynnis paphia paphia f. paphia (Silver-washed Fritillary)
Argynnis paphia paphia f. valesina (Silver-washed Fritillary)
Euphydryas aurinia aurinia f. aurinia (Marsh Fritillary)
Euphydryas aurinia aurinia f. hibernica (Marsh Fritillary)
Erebia epiphron mnemon f. mnemon (Mountain Ringlet)
Erebia epiphron mnemon f. scotica (Mountain Ringlet)
Coenonympha pamphilus pamphilus f. pamphilus (Small Heath)
Coenonympha pamphilus pamphilus f. rhoumensis (Small Heath)
And I hope you like the quote format from E.B. himself, as if he'd posted on UKB
Cheers,
- Pete