the Linnaean binomial A name of a species composed of two words: the genus (or generic) name and the species (or trivial) name, e g , Acropora palmata The scientific name is always written in italics The first letter of the generic name is always capitalized; that of the species name is never capitalized
is the name given by scientists (often in Latin) to animals and plants to allow them to be recognised by anyone around the world and to aid iunthe classification of species on earth For example, the bumblebees common name is bumblebee which would differ in every language But the scientific name Bombus is recognised by scientists across the world
A formal, Latinized name applied to a taxonomic group of animals or plants A species' scientific name is a two-part combination consisting of the name of the genus, followed by a species name For example, the scientific name of gray bat is Myotis grisescens If a species has been further divided into subspecies, a third part is added to the scientific name The Ozark big-eared bat is Plecotus townsendii ingens "Ingens" distinguishes the Ozark subspecies from other subspecies of the big-eared bat
The unique two-part latin name given to each SPECIES that has been described at some time in a scientific journal For example, the water vole's scientific name is 'Arvicola terrestris' The 'Arvicola' part denotes that the vole is classified as belonging to the GENUS 'Arvicola' The second part of the name 'terrestris' allows this animal to be distinguished from other species in the same genus The Scientific Name is useful to allow naturalists from different parts of the world to be sure they are talking about the same animal or plant For example, the 'water vole' is known as the 'water rat' to some people in this country and, even in identification guides written in English, has been called variously 'water vole', 'northern water vole' and even 'ground vole' Some authors have used the term 'water vole' when talking about a completely different but closely-related species (Arvicola sapidus) Consistent use of the Scientific Name is meant to minimise confusion