Reproductive Isolation and the Integrity of Two Sympatric Species of Choristoneura (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)

Abstract

According to Dobzhansky (1951a, p. 262) “Species are … groups of populations the gene exchange between which is limited or prevented by one, or by a combination of several, reproductive isolating mechanisms”. This definition follows from his concept of a species not as a static unit but as a stage in the process of evolutionary divergence. Limitation or prevention of gene exchange is a property of geographic and reproductive isolation (Mayr, 1912), the various types of which Dobzhansky lists as follows:I. Geographic or Spatial IsolationII. Reproductive IsolationA. Ecological IsolationB. Seasonal or Temporal IsolationC. Sexual, Psychological or Ethnological IsolationD. Mechanical IsolationE. Gametic IsolationF. Hybrid InviabilityG. Hybrid SterilityH. Hybrid Breakdown