The concept of subspecies has had a tortured history both in theory and practice. Linnaeus (1758) is considered the starting point of modern taxonomy. In his Systema Naturae, the taxonomic categories he introduced were Class, Order, Genus, Species, and Variety. Undefined, it is only by example that the Linnean meaning of variety can be gleaned: Linnaeus used it sparingly, under Homo sapiens, with varieties generally identified by the Greek letters alpha through epsilon, with epsilon in turn subcategorized a–c. A number of domestic dog breeds similarly were categorized, alpha through lambda, but only a small number of other species had additional categorized varieties (Linnaeus 1758). Mayr (1942:103–104) suggested that the “term had no well-defined meaning and covered a multitude of sins. [...] Anything that differed from [a] typical specimen was a ‘variety’.” The confusion over variety led Mayr (1942:106) to formulate a definition for subspecies, as follows:

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亚种的概念在理论和实践上都有一段痛苦的历史。Linnaeus (1758) 被认为是现代分类学的起点。在他的 Systema Naturae 中，他引入的分类学类别是 Class、Order、Genus、Species 和 Variety。未定义，只能通过示例来收集林奈的变体含义：林奈在智人下谨慎使用它，变体通常由希腊字母 alpha 到 epsilon 标识，而 epsilon 依次细分为 a-c。许多家犬品种也被类似地分类，从 alpha 到 lambda，但只有少数其他物种有额外的分类品种（Linnaeus 1758）。Mayr (1942:103-104) 认为“这个词没有明确定义的含义，涵盖了许多罪过。[... ] 任何与 [a] 典型标本不同的东西都是一个‘品种’。” 对品种的混淆导致 Mayr (1942:106) 为亚种制定如下定义：