The taxonomic rank of Spizella taverneri: A response to Mayr and Johnson

Mayr and Johnson suggest that Spizella taverneri should be a subspecies of the biological species S. breweri, because it is possibly not reproductivel y isolated. We originally concluded that evidence from mitochondrial DNA se quences, habitat preferences, timing of breeding, vocalizations, and morpho logy supported the recognition of S. taverneri as a phylogenetic and biolog ical species. Nothing in the commentary by Mayr and Johnson causes us to ch ange that conclusion. We believe that it is probable that these two allopat ric taxa are isolated. Contrary to Mayr and Johnson, we believe that more i nformation is given by ranking S. taverneri as a species. because it reveal s the fact that they art: independently evolving taxa. The classification o f Spizella should convey the sister-species status of S. taverneri and S. b reweri, without regard for balancing the degree of sequence divergence amon g species, as suggested by Mayr and Johnson.