Rules of Binomial Nomenclature
Rules of binomial nomenclature were initially framed by
Linnaeus in his books, Species Plantarum and Systema
Naturae. The rules were revised again by the following
nomenclature codes
(i) International Code for Botanical Nomenclature.
(ii) International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
(iii) International Code of Bacteriological Nomenclature.
(iv) International Code of Viral Nomenclature.
(v) International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated
Plants.
The rules framed by Linnaeus and by these codes are as follows
(i) The names are generally in Latin and written in italics.
They are Latinised or derived from Latin irrespective of
their origin.
(ii) The first word in a biological name represents the genus
while, the second component denotes the specific epithet.
(iii) Both the words in a biological name, when
handwritten, are separately underlined or printed in
italics to indicate their Latin origin.
(iv) The first word denoting the genus starts with a capital
letter while, the specific epithet starts with a small
letter, e.g., Mangifera indica.
(v) Name of the author appears after the specific epithet,
i.e., at the end of the biological name and is written in
an abbreviated form, e.g., Mangifera indica Linn Linn
is for Linnaeus.
(vi) When a species is transferred or revised, then the name
of the original worker is retained, but in parenthesis,
e.g., Syzygium cummini (L) skeels.
(vii) No names are recognised prior to those used by
Linnaeus in 1753 for plants in Species Plantarum and in
1758 for animals in the 10th edition of Systema
Naturae.
(viii) Generic and common names may be same, e.g., Gorilla
gorilla.
(ix) The name of categories higher than the rank of genus
are not printed in italics. Bold letters can, however be
used.