Chris Hill says, "I believe the term morph replaced "phase" for red vs
gray Screech Owls and other species that exist in two sympatric but
different forms, because of concern that "phase" implied impermanence."
Good point. But I wouldn't use "sympatric" this way. "Sympatric" and
"allopatric" should be used for two distinct populations that we're
comparing, perhaps to consider whether they're members of a single species
or not (sympatric: ranges overlap; allopatric: ranges are disjunct),
whereas morphs are, by definition, distinct forms within a single
population--like hair and eye color in humans, as I mentioned before. I
only mention this to the whole list because we ought to get all the
related terms straight if we're gonna talk about these questions.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at elwha.evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College Voice: 360-866-6000, x. 6755
Olympia, WA 98505 FAX: 360-866-6794