What are the universal rules of nomenclature?
The universal rules of nomenclature are as follows:
- Biological names are in Latin and are written in italics.
- The first word in the name indicates the genus, while the second word denotes its specific epithet.
- When the name is handwritten, both the words are separately underlined. When printed, the name is in italics.
- The first letter of the first word is always written in capital, while the first letter of the specific epithet, i.e. the second word, is a small letter.
Examples: Homo sapiens , Mangifera indica