Java Generics - An Issue with Type Erasure? -

i have generic class, codominantpopulation, subclass of generic class, sexualpopulation, subclass of generic class (population). aforementioned classes defined follows:

public class codominantpopulation<o extends codominantorganism> extends sexualpopulation<o> {  public codominantpopulation(list<o> organisms) {         super(organisms);     }     ... }  public class sexualpopulation<o extends sexualorganism> extends population<o> {     public sexualpopulation(list<o> organisms){         super(organisms);     }     ... } 

the codominiantorganism above subclass of sexualorganism, subclass (as may expected) of organism. within codominantpopulation, call function available codominantorganisms, called follows:

// in codominantpopulation (o organism : population){     // organism must codominantorganism     codominantgenotype.dominance dominance = organism.gettraitdominance(trait);     ... } 

nonetheless, runtime throws:

exception in thread "main" java.lang.classcastexception: sexualorganism cannot cast util.codominantorganism     @ codominantpopulation.countdominance(codominantpopulation.java:xx)         ... 

i not sure how interpret/fix error. have done research , seems though related java's type erasure - possible? passing objects of type codominantorganism codominantpopulation before program compiled.

edit: definition population follows:

public class population<o extends organism> {     list<o> population;      public population(list<o> organisms){         this.population = new arraylist<>();         this.population.addall(organisms);     }     ... } 

my guess is less issue generic types, inheritance, based on passing not yet ready object super. maybe have factory methods or constructors try pass not yet made codominantorganism.

this can happen several ways.

class     (x y) { f(y); }     protected void f(x x) { }  class b     b (x y) { super(y); f(y); }     @override     protected void f(x x) { } 

here in a's constructor indeed b's f called, unready b.

with bit of luck ide warns using non-final methods in constructor, other patterns of same kind possible. maybe use findbugs checking code inconsistencies.

i might wrong, generic types not seem culprit.