NOMENCLATURE

Nomenclature of Living Beings Biodiversity: The planet earth is full of variety of animals and plants. Every distinct geographical location has its own set of flora and fauna. This variety of living beings found in a given geographical area is called biodiversity of that area. Nomenclature and Identification: Because of the huge diversity present in the living world it became necessary to develop a system to classify and name all plants and animals. International Code for Botanical Nomenclature has developed a system for identification and classification of plants. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature has developed a system for identifying and classifying the animals.

General Rules for Nomenclature: 1. Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. They are Latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin. 2. The first word in a biological name represents the genus while the second component denotes the specific epithet. 3. Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin. 4. The first word denoting the genus starts with a capital letter while the specific epithet starts with a small letter.