>>OK,
>>
>>I’m confuzzed, please enlighten me. I am but a humble Naval Officer and hobbyist. I am not a biologist, herpetologist or taxonomist. However, I see the utilization of “ssp” which I use (In Drymarchon corais references), and “spp” that others use with apparent facility referencing the same subject. It appears that I may be ignorant in the correct way to abbreviate my subject.
>>
>>To my way of thinking, a reference to Drymarchon corais (ssp) is a reference to the entire tree below D. c. including D. c. corais, melanarus, rubidus, errebennus, et. al. Whereas “spp” is a reference to species that takes us up the tree a notch or two...
>>
>>I personally accept D. couperi in accordance with W.W.’s supposition. But then again, who am I?
>>
>>Forgive my ignorance, and help me say what I mean to say when I feel the need. I am a closet wordsmith, I wish to be correct and accurate.
>>
>>Thanks and Regards,
>>Jeff Nichols


Jeff,
ssp. is "subspecies" and sp. or spp. is "species". So, if you write Drymarchon melanurus ssp., then you are speaking of the subspecies of D.melanurus in general. If you say Drymarchon sp or Drymarchon spp. then you are speaking of the genus Drymarchon in general. Since some of these critters were formerly under the species Drymarchon corais, there may be some confusion. So, you may occasionally see something like Drymarchon melanurus rubidus(sp. nov) or maybe Drymarchon melanurus rubidus(sp. nov Wuster). The (sp. nov) means "species nova" or "new species".

One or two other things...when writing scientific names, you should italicize the name, or if that's not possible, underline it. The genus name should be capitalized, the species and subspecies (if it's a trinomial) should not be captialized. After a name has been mentioned in the text, it's ok to abbreviate the genus and species names. So, if this text were to continue, I could just use D.m.rubidus. However, if you are going to use the abbreviation "ssp.", you wouldn't want to abbreviate the species name and if you are going to use the abbreviation spp. or sp., you wouldn't want to abbreviate the genus name.

Does that help any?
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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