Europäische Wasserfrösche (Anura, Ranidae) und biologisches Artkonzept

European Waterfrogs (Anura, Ranidae) and the Biospecies Concept Next to biological species there exist a series of organisms, among them European waterfrogs, which do not comply with the criteria required for the biospecies concept. Forms such as Rana ridibunda, R. lessonae, R. perezi, R. epeirotica, R. shqiperica and probably R. saharica can be considered to be semispecies and therefore fit within the usual nomenclatural terms as biospecies. However, Rana kl. esculenta , the Graf's hybridfrog and the Italian hybridfrog, do not comply with any of the main characteristics which the greater part of evolutionary biologists adscribe to biological species. These forms should be included within another category of the species group ‐ the category klepton. According to previous suggestions, it is recommended that the klepton category be designated by the obligatory abbreviation „kl.”︁ between the genus and the klepton name, otherwise the forms may nomenclaturally be treated like biospecies. The binominal designation for parthenogenetic, gynogenetic and other groups whose reproduction modus differs from that of biospecies also simulates a situation that does not exist in reality. Therefore, other taxonomic and nomenclatural procedures should be searched to designate such forms.