ecomorphn.

1954 J. G. Edwards in Systematic Zool. 3 13 Any large influx of mature stragglers which breed rather freely and normally with the resident population will result in the subspecies tending more and more toward degenerating to mere ‘morphs’ or ‘local varieties’. In this case they might be called ‘ecomorphs’ because they would be more or less localized ecologically, rather than spatially.

1979 Bryologist 82 85 Because of the reduced morphology correlated with habitat, the var. tortelloides is here considered a stress ecomorph of recent origin.

2004 H. D. Rundle & D. Schluter in U. Dieckmann et al. Adaptive Speciation ix. 202 Females mated significantly more often with males of their own ecomorph from a different lake than with males of the other ecomorph from a different lake.

1974 Evol. 28 489 These ecomorphs, called ‘cricket frogs,’ represent five different origins but are strikingly convergent in ecology and behaviour. Five genera are involved, one on each continent.

1994 Nat. History Apr. 78/2 Some extinct giant lemurs appear to have been ecomorphs of such animals as the marsupial koala.

2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life i. iii. 36 Each of the great mammalian groupings obviously includes body types and ways of life (sometimes called ‘ecomorphs’) that are not matched by the other.

1972 Southwestern Naturalist 66 435 I demonstrated that the morphological differences between the nominal species [of sponges] are ecomorphic and probably related to the availability of silica.

2000 Aquatic Biol. 66 132 According to most commonly accepted taxonomic criteria, ecomorphic variants of C. taxifolia can, under certain conditions, produce the morphological characteristics attributed to C. Mexicana, and vice-versa.