Abstract
Definitions of “species” and “type species” have been problematic in the taxonomy of different types of biological organisms. For virus taxonomy, the problems have been addressed by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and the results are compiled in The International Code of Virus Taxonomy and Nomenclature [4, 8]. The Code defines a virus species as a polythetic class of viruses that constitutes a replicating lineage and occupies a particular ecological niche. The application of this definition to virus taxonomy has been reviewed by van Regenmortel [7]. However, although the rules and procedures of virus taxonomy have referred to “type species” in connection with descriptions of genera for a number of years, the virus “type species” has not been explicitly defined. The requirement for virus type species arises from two sections of The Code [4.8]:
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