At least for plants, it is very clear that the abbreviation is “subsp.” per Art 5 of the ICN 5A.1. For purposes of standardization, the following abbreviations are recommended: cl. (class), ord. (order), fam. (family), tr. (tribe), gen. (genus), sect. (section), ser. (series), sp. (species), var. …

[image] kevinfaccenda: the following abbreviations are recommended: My emphasis. Recomended is not the same as compulsory, so in my opinion it is not incorrect. Also, ssp. is certainly in common usage in many parts of the world, in spite of the recommended subsp.

Okay, well overall, “subsp.” is used much more across all biology, 8x more for describing new taxa 32000 results for “subsp. nov” in scholar 4000 results for “ssp. nov” in scholar

Google Scholar: “subsp n” - 4,080 results “ssp n” - 7,280 results I think in zoology the abbreviation ssp. is much more common than subsp. And there are many more animals than plants.

In ornithology papers, I see ssp. used almost exclusively. I can’t remember ever seeing the subsp. as the abbreviation.

[image] kevinfaccenda: The term “ssp.” should therefore be removed from any context in the inat codebase as it is incorrect. It does seem that it is more common in zoology. “nov” is not supposed to be abbreviated in botany, hence much less references using “subsp. n.” However, even when addin…

Since “ssp.” is currently as-designed, this isn’t really a bug, so I’m moving it to the General category for further discussion. You could consider submitting a Feature Request to have all plant, algal, and fungal subspecies use “subsp.” Seems like easy coding, but I’m pretty poor at guessing such…

Subspecies, which are necessarily either synonymous to a population or to a species, are not used much in zoology any more. They have been almost completely eradicated in ichthyology, with subspecies being either elevated to full species if they can be distinguished from other groups, or, if they ca…

all the more reason we should be conforming to the convention of how to abbreviate subspecies in plants, not animals, as infraspecies (of which there are multiple ranks in plants) are actually commonly used in botany, where they are of interest and importance in ecology and evolution.

ssp. was the standard for decades. subsp. is clearer, also longer and clunkier. I wouldn’t really like to see this change, but if somebody cares deeply enough to go to the trouble of changing it, I’ll just mutter a little about misplace priorities and let it go. Subspecies (however we abbreviate …

Subspecies "ssp." abbreviation is incorrect

General

SteveMcBill May 20, 2025, 8:06pm 3

ssp. is certainly used within entomology.

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Subspecies "ssp." abbreviation is incorrect

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