type species

1. 1.

   (biology) the species that best exemplifies the essential characteristics of the genus to which it belongs

   Broaderspecies

   biology

Questions about type species

What does type species mean?

type species means "(biology) the species that best exemplifies the essential characteristics of the genus to which it belongs".

Is type species a common word?

type species is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.