Mostly spp. use for plural species and sp. for singular species. In manuscript some time people use spp for plural strains of same species. Can we use spp. for plural strain from single species???
Dear Dr. Zaheer
Very first, species in itself is a plural.
and you pointed rightly... spp. is used for adressing multiple species at a time whereas
using sp. imply addressing to one species only.
Strain, though not having any official ranking status in Botany and moreover, is a taxonomic rank used at infraspecific level. Obviously, it is not advisable to use this term "spp." at any level other than species.
The convention I have always followed is that spp means more than one species, sp means a single species that you have not been able to identify. In practice, I don't use spp very often, because if I am referring to several species I would normally say so in full: e.g: "there were between 3 and 6 clausiliid species in each sample". If you have several unidentified or unnamed species but you are sure they are different, then I would give each a letter: e.g.: Punctid sp a; Punctid sp. b etc.
Yes it is a convention to regard spp. denoting more than one species. Similar abbreviations are ms and mss,, p and pp. (pages), etc.
I think technically sp should still be for a single species, even if multiple strains.
From Wikipedia: The abbreviation "sp." is used when the actual specific name cannot or need not be specified. The abbreviation "spp." (plural) indicates "several species". These abbreviations are not italicised (or underlined).[46] For example: "Canis sp." means "an unspecified species of the genus Canis", while "Canis spp." means "two or more species of the genus Canis". (The abbreviations "sp." and "spp." can easily be confused with the abbreviations "ssp." (zoology) or "subsp." (botany), plurals "sspp." or "subspp.", referring to one or more subspecies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_nomenclature
And more specific re: Strains:
http://www.jlindquist.net/generalmicro/102usage.html
@Danish Husain I think species is neither plural nor singular word. Even for one individual we write 'species' and for multiple we use the same word. Isn't it?
Guide me if I am wrong :)
Thank you
Regards
Irum Malik
In the Oxford dictionary the word 'species' is followed by the information: Plural same.
Thus it depends on the context of use, denoting one species or more than that.
Probably like 'deer',
@iram malik
Dear Malik
Firstly, species is the basic unit of classification. ..
Any category in the classificatory system, be it species, genus or family. .. don't have any existence, and infact are meaningful relative to each other only....
Means if one asks you to bring solanaceae from field. ...then you will bring potato ( solanum tuberosum) not the family.... hope you got the basic unit of classification. ..
Now after learning this.... let me take you to amswer..
multiple organisms of one kind (morphologically similar and capable of interbreeding) will make a population. .. for the sake of our convenience we have classified them as one species (*this is what the aim of classification is...)
Single or multiple organisms or multiple populations of one kind will be referred to as one species...
Two organisms of different kinds will be referred as two different species....
Hope you got the answer...
Helping you to use-
Aconitum spp. are of great medicinal importance. ( here in this statement. ... many species of genus Aconitum are of great medicinal importance)
And sp. Is used in to adress ONE SPECIES which is taxonomically unidentified...
Mentioning again.... species is singular as well as plural... like the word "sheep"
***
Regards
Danish Husain
Does the Genus name still need to be italics if followed by sp. or spp.?
I would say yes it does (?from Robin). At least that is how I have always seen it handled
Is it still correct to use as follows?
such as Anopheles spp., Culex spp.,
Yes, if you are referring to multiple species within a genus. If it is multiple isolates that have only been characterized to genus, I would still go with spp. unless you had some criteria to demonstrate that they were the same species, then it would be sp.
Dear Dr.
We use "sp" for a species of a particular known genus, but we use spp. when it is more than one unknown species of known genus.
thank you
I commonly see examples like "There are many spp. of crustaceans found in that area." Is that technically correct?
Hi Fabio! I understand that 'spp.' is better to come only after a genus name, but to use it in a sentence instead of 'species', as in your example, would not be technically preferable. Let's see other opinions. All the best.....Mohamed
sp. use is for "known genus, unknown species"; spp. use is for "several different unknown species under known genus" and used only with the genus name;and not written in italics or underlined.
Best wishes,
i strongly agreed with my colleagues in their nice answers which clarified and put end to the confusions .
What would you use if you have known family, unknown genus, or known phylum but nothing else?
A member of the family, say, Solanaceae or say, a legume genus...etc.
Thanks!
There are no abbreviations? Im trying to make a table of the abundance of over 100 bacteria, some on genus level, some higher...
I think sp. should be limited to a single species or a monotypic genus like Natsiatopsis sp. ie. N. thunbergiifolia .....why to create confusion....
the word species is neither use as singular or plural noun. it is just like the word sheep which cannot be pluralized. However, the abbreviation sp and spp can be used to indicate organism of known general but unknown species and several different unknown species with a known general
sp. use is for "known genus, unknown species"; spp. use is for "several different unknown species under known genus" and used only with the genus name;and not written in italics or underlined.
above paragraph is confirmed.
i see that there are controversy.and no clear answers so i hope if there are a mass agreement with my respects to all@
If we don’t know which species it is, we use the generic name followed by 'sp.' eg: Artemisia sp.
When referring collectively to some or all, of the species in a genus, we use the generic name followed by 'spp.' eg: Artemisia spp.
(spp. stands for species pluralis, Latin for multiple species)
Lumley, Peter & Spencer, Roger (1991) 'Plant Names: A Guide to Botanical Nomenclature', Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
When we know only the genus and not the species, we write sp. which is not italicized. Suppose, we have isolated Candida from clinical specimen and species is not identified, then we will mention Candida sp.If there are many species in the genus, we prefer to write spp. Candida is a genus, which has many species.In this case ,we will write Candida spp.
Prof.Dr.Mahendra Pal
Founder Director of Narayan Consultancy
“spp”. stands for species pluralis, Latin for multiple species while “sp”. imply addressing to one specie only..
Briefly, "sp" usually used to clarify the strain of bacteria (for example) that is unique. otherwise, the suffix "spp" usually used for a group (more than one) of bacteria (for example) which are totally different from each others but due to the same signs of infections and/or damage called along with "spp" as suffix.
When referring to an unknown or disputed species, sp. is singular and spp. multiple.
To my understanding sp. is for one species while spp. is for many species within a genus.
Can "spp." be used with family names? For example, "Gobiidae spp. and Scorpaenidae spp."?
Yes, it is acceptable to use the "sp." and "spp." designations following a family taxon, at least in describing bacteria or archaea. I assume this would also be acceptable for animal families, such as those you listed in your examples.
If there are many species in the genus, we prefer to write spp. Aspergillus is a genus that contains many species. In this case ,we will write Aspergillus spp. In case, there is only one species ,we usually mention sp.
If we DON'T KNOW which species it is, we use the generic name followed by 'sp.' eg: Artemisia sp.
If we DO KNOW which species it is, we use the generic name followed by the species, eg Artemisia annua, Artemisia absinthium or Artemisia afra. (In this context would be written as Artemisia annua, A. absinthium, or A. afra). The generic name and species are italicised.
When referring collectively to some or all, of the species in a genus, we use the generic name followed by 'spp.' eg: Artemisia spp. (spp. stands for species pluralis, Latin for multiple species).
Ref: Lumley, Peter & Spencer, Roger (1991) 'Plant Names: A Guide to Botanical Nomenclature', Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
I think, when it is a new species we can state . sp, howerever when we talk about all species of the genus or the identification was not continuted to the spcies level we state spp.
Well, this is a huge discussion. I had a teacher that argued that if you use spp. with a genus, you are comiting a mistake. I remember he said that, if you know the species, you cite directly the binominal identification (Genus species), and if you can't identify, you must use Genus sp. If you can't identify, at species level, how can you know if that indivituals who you refer represents a single or multiple species? If you use "sp." it is implict that you don't know what it is. In this case, "spp." could be used in a sentence just to substitute the word "species" in a abreviated form. If you want to refer to several species, you can just use the genus like "Many species from Pinus genus are used worldwide to produce wood". But I couldn't find a taxonomy reference showing this to cite.
In biology, sp. is the abbreviation of species when used as singular and spp. is the plural form used in place of species name, when its identity is not clear. Sp. or spp. can be applied to any genus. This is written when the authors (taxonomists) are confident that an individual belongs to a particular genus but are not sure to which species it belongs to. Spp. is the short form, indicating many species within a single genus.
Species is species, it does not have either singular or plural. Specie refer to an entirely different things. Specie can be a non-living thing, for example, species of metal like iron. Therefore, both "sp and "spp" are correct.
In prokaryotes: sp. species; spp. species plural; subsp. subspecies; ssp. subspecies plural. This is how I used it on my PhD dissertation and I took from The List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN). "LPSN provides comprehensive information on the nomenclature of prokaryotes and much more." So I suggest you to spend some time browsing this website https://lpsn.dsmz.de/text/glossary and https://lpsn.dsmz.de/archive/-foreword.html If you like systematics and taxonomy of bacteria and archaea you will enjoy it. The specific answer to your question is NO, spp. is the abbreviation for the plural of species not for the plural of strain. The plural of strain is strains and there is no abbreviation for that. Regards
I am also in agreement with the difference put forward by Munira Nasiruddin. That is the difference I teach my students.
Strictly speaking I understand sp. is singular and spp. is plural and the purpose of writing the abbreviation is to indicate that the writer knows the genus but not the species.
However, in practice I cannot think of a reason why a writer would use sp. Here is why, by way of an example: A writer may use Isistius spp. to indicate they know the animal they are discussing belongs to the genus Isistius (cookie cutter sharks) but they could not identify the species. In this genus there are at least two species. An author may refer to the identification of a bite mark as having originated from a shark in this genus, but they do not know whether it is one species or another. In this case I would argue that it was one of two species and therefore the correct use would be spp.
However, it appears the authors of this article would disagree with me: Article Pathology findings and correlation with body condition index...
I'm sorry if this answer sows confusion, but I think clarification on this point within the scientific community is a relatively important open editorial question at the moment. As far as I'm aware, when I did my PhD in the early 2000s the use of sp. was not common.
Hello all,
Any idea about mentioning Unknown species in manuscripts?
Thanks
And if you know that a group of individuals belong to the same genus but you do not know if they belong to a single species or to multiple species? How do you report it?
sp. denotes a single species of a genus whereas, spp. means several species of a genus. Suppose I have collected a species of an Allium but, I do not know the name of it we can write Allium sp. and if I have collected more than one species of Allium then we will write Allium spp.
Sp. denotes an unidentified species of a particular Genus, whereas spp. denotes more then one unidentified species of a Genus.
I agree with Dr. Munira
sp. ", To designate an unidentified or not yet described species
spp. designate several unidentified or not yet described species within a genus.