Why not in the second? It could read:

"Most investigated _Canis lupus_ sightings in the Okanogan Highlands were most
> >likely to have been misidentified _Canis latrans_ or _Canis familiaris_."

I admit that I should have written "Gray Walf" rather than "Wolf", but
I was referring to a specific wolf species. And yes, when referring
to a group of species, like ground squirrels, we used small letters.
There is, however, only one species of domestic Dog. The Dog in the
sentence does not refer to the dog family in general.

Kelly Cassidy

> While in general I agree that capitalization is good, I think it should
> be reserved for cases where the latin name for the species would be used
> if the readers could all be assumed to know the latin. That is, when it
> is important that the individual species be specified, then caps should
> be used.
>
> Thus, in the first of Kelly's sentences below, caps would be used, they
> would not be in the second.
>
> == Michael
> >----------
> >From: Kelly Cassidy[SMTP:kelly at cqs.washington.edu]
> >
> >"The Ponderosa Pine zone is characterized by dominance of
> >ponderosa pine in most stands. In cooler parts of the zone,
> >Douglas-fir (or is it douglas-fir?) and lodgepole pine may
> >be common. Typical bird species are White-headed Woodpeckers...
> >Typical mammals are the yellow pine chipmunk...."
> >
> >"Most investigated Wolf sightings in the Okanogan Highlands were most
> >likely to have been misidentified Coyotes or Dogs."
> >
> >
> >
>