Insect Taxonomy And Classification
Have you ever thought about why we name things at all? If you have you probably realized that names are very important
for identifying things, especially when communicating with other people. However
not everybody uses the same name for the same animal. For instance slaters,
cheesybugs and woodlice are all different names for the same animal in different
parts of the world. These are known as common names.
With so many insects to account for, it's not surprising that the insects'
"family tree" or phylogeny can get pretty complicated. To understand the insect
family tree, you need to have an idea how living things are classified and
named. A taxonomyÐa scientific classification of organismsÐis an important
and useful tool. There are several ways to classify living things. One of
the oldest and simplest taxonomies was developed in the 1730's by Swedish
scientist.
The Linnaean System
C
arl Linnaeus, also known as Carl von Linné
or Carolus Linnaeus is often called the Father of Taxonomy. His system for
naming, ranking, and classifying organisms is still in wide use today (with
many changes). His ideas on classification have influenced generations of
biologists during and after his own lifetime, even those opposed to the philosophical
and theological roots of his work.
Common names can vary so much that in the
1750's Linnaeus suggested a method of naming things that could be used by
scientists all over the world. He introduced binomial nomenclature, which
means two names. Both were in Latin. The first name identifies the genus and
the second the species, such as Homo sapien. Such names follow a specific
format. Because the names are Latin, they often appear in italics. Only the
first name is capitalized. The science of naming things is called taxonomy
and though it can become quite complicated the basics are easy to understand.
Linnaeus developed his taxonomy of living things "from
the bottom up". He started by grouping individual species of plants with similar
characteristics into a group called a genus. Then, he grouped similar genera
(plural of genus) into families, similar families into orders and so on, until
all plants were joined into one huge group, the Plant Kingdom. Later, Linnaeus
repeated this process for the animal kingdom. Additional information can be
found at the University
of California Museum of Paleontology/Berkeley.