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Authors: Chris Stassen (stassen@netcom.uucp),
         jwm@sun4.uucp (James W. Meritt),
         Anneliese Lilje (anne@cco.caltech.edu),
     L. Drew Davis (drewd@terminus.gatech.edu)
  Title: A List of Observed Speciation Events
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By Chris Stassen:

Here is a short list of referenced speciation events.  I picked
four relatively well-known examples, from about a dozen that I
had documented in materials that I have around my home.  These
are all common knowledge, and by no means do they encompass all
or most of the available examples.

Example one:

    A strain of _drosophilia paulistorum_ developed hybrid
    sterility after being isolated in the lab for only a
    couple of years.

    (Test for speciation: offspring are not fertile, like
    horse vs. donkey.)

    Dobzhansky, Th., and O. Pavlovsky, 1971.  "An experimentally
    created incipient species of Drosophilia", _Nature_
    23:289-292.

Example two:

    Evidence that a species of fireweed formed by doubling of
    the chromosome count, from the original stock.    (Note that
    polyploids are generally considered to be a separate "race"
    of the same species as the original stock, but they do meet
    the criteria which you suggested.)

    (Test for speciation: cannot produce offspring with the
    original stock.)

    Mosquin, T., 1967.  "Evidence for autopolyploidy in
    _Epilobium angustifolium_ (Onaagraceae)", _Evolution_
    21:713-719

Example three:

    Rapid speciation of the Faeroe Island house mouse, which
    occurred in less than 250 years after man brought the
    creature to the island.

    (Test for speciation in this case is based on morphology.
    It is unlikely that forced breeding experiments have been
    performed with the parent stock.)

    Stanley, S., 1979.  _Macroevolution: Pattern and Process_,
    San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Company.  p. 41

Example four:

    Formation of five new species of cichlid fishes which
    formed since they were isolated less than 4000 years
    ago from the parent stock, Lake Nagubago.

    (Test for speciation in this case is by morphology and
    lack of natural interbreeding.  These fish have complex
    mating rituals and different coloration.  While it might
    be possible that different species are inter-fertile,
    they cannot be convinced to mate.)

    Mayr, E., 1970.  _Populations, Species, and Evolution_,
    Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.  p. 348