population

noun

A biological unit representing the individuals of a species living in a particular area; a group of individuals with common ancestry that are much more likely to breed with one another than with individuals from another such group. Usually populations have little demographic or genetic exchange with other such populations. Population is defined as the total number of individuals of the taxon. For functional reasons, primarily owing to differences between life-forms, population numbers are expressed as numbers of mature individuals only. In the case of taxa obligately dependent on other taxa for all or part of their life cycles, biologically appropriate values for the host taxon should be used.