Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
SPECIES
I. noun (plural species) see: spy
Date: 14th century
1. kind , sort , a class of individuals having common attributes and designated by a common name, the human race ; human beings, d. a category of biological classification ranking immediately below the genus or subgenus, comprising related organisms or populations potentially capable of interbreeding, and being designated by a binomial that consists of the name of a genus followed by a Latin or latinized uncapitalized noun or adjective agreeing grammatically with the genus name, an individual or kind belonging to a biological species, a particular kind of atomic nucleus, atom, molecule, or ion, the consecrated eucharistic elements of the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Eucharist,
3. a mental image, an object of thought correlative with a natural object,
II. adjective
Date: 1899
belonging to a biological species as distinguished from a horticultural variety