semispeciesn.

1825 R. T. Gore tr. J. F. Blumenbach Man. Elements Nat. Hist. xii. 355 Semi Species (imperfect) [Ger. Halbarten] [of compound rocks], in which one or other of their proper elements are wanting, but without any corresponding addition of foreign substances.

1859 J. Hattersley Potato Dis. & Remedy 10 It would appear, according to the distinguishing point between a species and a variety.., that the potato is a kind of semi species, producing the identity of the plant, but losing it in the tuber.

1887 Garden 12 Nov. 445/3 When the crosses got mixed up and the original species could not be determined they were designated semi-species, and had florists' names given to them... These were omitted by Herbert as having no place in a botanical arrangement.

1940 E. Mayr in Amer. Naturalist 74 256 The taxonomist finds it sometimes useful for practical purposes to treat as full species what should be regarded as subspecies on the basis of the definition. Groups of such ‘semi-species’ are called superspecies in the subsequent discussion.

1957 Murrelet 38 4 He also described as ‘semispecies’ certain interbreeding color forms of cormorants where the forms are for the most part separated in a colony, but do overlap and interbreed.

1978 Sci. Amer. Sept. 60/1 Semispecies from the same locality will not crossbreed in the laboratory but semispecies from different localities will.

2009 M. Cartmill & F. H. Smith Human Lineage ii. 44/2 Like many other African herbivores, they appear to have been divided into many local species and semispecies.