EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -1. Scientific names are always italicized. When hand-writing text, you can underline them instead, but there is no excuse not to italicize when using a word processor.

Detailed explanation-2: -Abstract. It is common practice in scientific journals to print genus and species names in italics. This is not only historical as species names were traditionally derived from Greek or Latin. Importantly, it also facilitates the rapid recognition of genus and species names when skimming through manuscripts.

Detailed explanation-3: -When writing scientific names: italicize family, genus, species, and variety or subspecies. Begin family and genus with a capital letter. Kingdom, phylum, class, order, and suborder begin with a capital letter but are not italicized.

Detailed explanation-4: -A genus (or genus group) is always italicized and capitalized, even when not paired with a species or subspecies name, and whether given in full or abbreviated: Allosaurus, Falco, Anas, and the “E.” in E. coli.

Detailed explanation-5: -Binomial nomenclature gives each species a scientific name. Scientific name consists of two parts. The first is genus name and second is species name. It is always written in italics (if typed) or underlined (handwritten).