Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:39, 21 October 2012

The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption.

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This page in a nutshell: Capitalize scientific names from subgenus upward, and italicize them from supragenus downward through subspecies. Common names of species and other groupings are lower case except where they contain a proper name. Formal domesticated varieties/breeds may be capitalized, but not informal landraces or types. Interpolations into scientific names are not italicized. Scientific names for cultivated plants can be complicated, with various special characters. Do not apply any sub-field's peculiar stylistic conventions if they conflict with the general rules. For complex cases of scientific naming, refer to relevant specialist academic sources, while for vernacular naming, follow generalist sources on English language usage (especially, do not capitalize as a form of emphasis).

This guideline describes Misplaced Pages's stylistic conventions relating to animals (fauna), plants (flora) and other organisms (such as protists). Instructions with regard to animals usually also apply to protozoa, and those with regard to plants usually also apply to fungi, algae and cyanobacteria. If in doubt about the applicability of anything given (or not given) in this guideline, consult encyclopedic works on the topic or scholarly literature. If still in doubt, use the style that seems most correct by general rules rather than attempt to apply a questionable interpretation of narrow rules.

The instructions below closely follow the conventions expounded in the relevant academic literature, to the letter, when this is feasible, and explicitly abandon it when it causes problems, such as between two such conventions that can apply in the same article or, more importantly, between such a convention and Misplaced Pages's mission as the broadest encyclopedia for the most general audience in human history, e.g. when such a convention conflicts with normal expectations about English grammar and usage in encyclopedic writing. Misplaced Pages is not an academic specialist journal nor a biological nomenclature code, and cannot hope to emulate every stylistic preference of every such publication, especially since many of them directly contradict one another's preferences. This is an internal guideline about how to consistently write biological prose in Misplaced Pages, not an article about the minutiae of biological naming conventions in academic circles.

Scientific names

Scientific names in the taxonomy of organisms are formatted on Misplaced Pages according to standardized taxonomic nomenclature, inasmuch as various taxonomic codes do not conflict. These are promulgated in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN code) for animals and animal-like protists; the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), which also covers cyanobacteria; the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB), for all other kinds of bacteria and eukaryotes; and the code of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV code) for viruses only.

Taxonomic ranks (taxa) above genus (family, order, etc.) are always capitalized and are not italicized for animals, plants or bacteria: bats belong to the order Chiroptera; rats and mice are members of the family Muridae and the order Rodentia. For viruses, the recent formal convention is to italicize and capitalize the order and everything below it, including the first letter of the species name (but not of subsequent words in the species name). This italicization convention should be used for virus infoboxes and otherwise within virology articles, only; it is not common outside this context even in academic journals, and should not be used in other categories of articles, as its double inconsistency will be confusing to readers and to non-specialist editors. When editing an article that mixes viral and other topics, use the italicization and capitalization conventions of the non-viral topic, as this increases site-wide consistency and is less jarring for readers (e.g., in an article on cattle health, use the ICZN not ICTV style). Examples: In a virology article, use within Herpesviridae, genus Cytomegalovirus belongs to the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily, but otherwise use within Herpesviridae, genus Cytomegalovirus belongs to the Betaherpesvirinae subfamily. Virus species names are often abbreviated, e.g. HIV, HHV-5, etc.; these short forms are not italicized and do not use periods (stops) between the acronym letters.

There is often an English form for a member of any given taxonomic level (order, family etc.), and it is usually derived from the scientific name; this is neither capitalized nor italicized: members of the order Chiroptera are chiropters; members of the family Muridae are murids, members of the order Rodentia are rodents, and members of the genus Cytomegalovirus are cytomegaloviruses. This being en.wiki, not la.wiki, avoid Latin versions of words for taxa, as in the animal regnum or ordo Strigiformes; they will not be understood by many readers who are neither biologists nor Latin students.

The words for taxonomic ranks are never capitalized: use the animal kingdom and order Strigiformes, not the animal Kingdom or Order Strigiformes. The sole exception is the horticultural designation of cultivar "group", which is capitalized when (and only when) it follows a group name: Mishmiense Group but not some members of the Group were reclassified. These taxonomic designations are also never italicized: Equus subgenus Hippotigris, or Saxifraga aizoon variety aizoon subvariety brevifolia. After the first occurrence of such a usage, it is permissible to abbreviate these connecting terms or generalities, e.g. Saxifraga aizoon var. aizoon subvar. brevifolia or Equus quagga ssp., in a scientific name. Be aware that standard abbreviations may differ by field, e.g. "subspecies" is "ssp." in zoology but "subsp." in bacteriology and botany, and some of them are rarely used, e.g. "cv." for "cultivar", and should thus be avoided altogether. The abbreviations should not be used in general prose, as in researchers have identified 22 ssp. so far, only in secondary occurrences of scientific names.

The entire binomial or trinomial scientific name, whether given in full or abbreviated, is always italicized (except for interpolations and infrasubspecfics, as detailed below): Liriodendron tulipifera, and N. v. piaropicola.

In particular:

• A genus (or genus group) is always italicized and capitalized, even when not paired with a species or subpsecies name, and whether given in full or abbreviated: Allosaurus, Falco, Anas. Subgenus, when applicable, is treated the same way.
• Any lower taxa, i.e. species and (when applicable) subspecies or other formal infraspecific name, are italicized. They are never capitalized (except for viruses, in virology articles), even where based on a proper name. Examples: the tulip tree is Liriodendron chinense; all modern humans are Homo sapiens; the peninsula newt is Notophthalmus viridescens piaropicola. A species (or subspecies) name is always preceded by the genus name, or a capitalized abbreviation of it when the meaning of the abbreviation is clear in context. Viruses are an exception; they are so narrowly named at the species level (e.g. Human herpesvirus-5) that including the genus would be superfluous.
• An interpolated name after a genus name to indicate a subgenus, after a genus-group to denote an aggregate of species, or after a species name to mean an aggregate of subspecies, is italicized and placed in parentheses (round brackets). None of these are capitalized except subgenus. Note that it is generally not conventional to include interpolated names, which are usually better discussed in prose and laid out in infboxes, as they are not actually part of the scientific name, but are descriptive of taxonomic position.
• Interpolations such as "cf.", "×", "+", or the parentheses (round brackets) around interpolated names are not italicized: Ninox cf. novaeseelandiae; the chaussie is a hybrid cat (Felis catus × F. chaus); Potentilla (Sibbaldiopsis) tridentata; the orange (Citrus × sinensis) is a hybrid of uncertain genetic origin. In trinomials (three-part or ternary combinations), the interpolation "subspecies" or "subsp." is conventionally only used for bacteria: Bacillus cereus subsp. mycoides, versus Equux quagga borensis.
• Names of infrasubspecific terms and taxa (classifications below subspecies) as well as those of hybrids and the like at higher levels, vary in their handling:
  • The majority of modifiers of a species name, including zoological usages like "complex", "species group", "radiation" and "variety", and bacteriological usages like "phagovar", "chemovar", "serovar" and "biovar", and any names that accompany them, are not italicized, and not capitalized unless the letters are part of a serial number: Drosophila tumiditarsus species group; Staphyloccocus aureus phagovar 42D. This should not be confused with simplex, etc., used as a species name, which of course is italicized as such.
  • Recognized naturally occurring botanical varieties are preceded by "var." and italicized and lower-cased like a subspecies: Escobaria vivipara var. arizonica.
  • A domestic cultivar group name is capitalized along with the word "Group", not italicized and not put in quotation marks or parentheses: Rhododendron boothii Mishmiense Group; you can use {{sic}} to prevent "corrections" of what will look like a typographic error to many reader-editors: {{sic|Mishmiense Group|hide=y|reason=Both of these are properly capitalized per the ICNCP.}} Where both appear, the group name precedes the cultivar name: Brassica oleracea Italica Group 'Calabrese'.
  • Nothospecies (naturally occurring interspecies or intergenus hybrid) names are italicized, not capitalized lower than genus, and are given with the interpolation "×" (the multiplication or "by" symbol, available in the "Insert" editing tools below the editing box; it is not the alphabetic character "x", the lower-case "X"). Example: Cattleya × hardyana. Do not use the hard-to-read unspaced style as in Cattleya ×hardyana; it is advisable to use the non-breaking space character code  in these constructions, to prevent awkward line-wrapping: ''Cattleya'' × ''hardyana''. If the hybrid does not have its own published name, the parent species or subspecies are given: Cattleya warscewiczii × C. aurea. Some authorities give hybrids between genera (nothogenera) their own genus name, which is simply preceded by "×": Crosses between the genera Amaryllis and Crinum are classified as × Amarcrinum; the nothospecies × Amarcrinum memoria-corsii is an Amaryllis belladonna × Crinum moorei cross. Avoid beginning sentences with this non-alphabetic character, as in × Amarcrinum is a cross between the genera Amaryllis and Crinum. Where both appear, the nothospecies name precedes the cultivar name: Amaryllis × parkeri 'Hathor'.
  • Horticultural and agricultural (i.e. domesticated plant) formal cultivar names are capitalized in title case by convention (even where they do not contain proper names), are never italicized, and are given after the scientific name, in single quotation marks, without brackets of any kind: Persea americana 'Hass', and Malus domestica 'Golden Delicious', each cultivars within a species; Malus domestica × M. sylvestris 'Granny Smith', an interspecific-hybrid cultivar within a genus, which can be given more succinctly as Malus 'Granny Smith' – specifying the parent species is not always important in the context and can be distracting. While various gardening and horticulture books boldface the cultivar name to make it stand out, do not do this in Misplaced Pages, as doing so is not actually part of the scientific nomenclature of cultivated plants, and Misplaced Pages is not a plant guidebook. See ICN's formal declaration that boldfacing is not part of the convention.
  • A grex (horticultural, artificial hybrid) name is capitalized, but the word "grex" is not, and neither are italicized or specially punctuated: Cattlya Hardyana grex is a C. warscewiczii × C. dowiana hybrid. Do not omit the word "grex"; while it is common shorthand to do so in horticulturist catalogs and the like, the clipped usage is ambiguous and confusing.
  • A graft chimera name is italicized and preceded by the interpolated prefix "+", with no space between it and the following name: The graft chimera of Crataegus and Mespilus is +Crataegomespilus. Avoid beginning sentences with this non-alphabetic character, as in +Crataegomespilus is a graft chimera of Crataegus and Mespilus.
  • The vernacular names of landraces and general "types" or "kinds" of animals and plants are not italicized, not specially punctuated, not capitalized except where they contain proper names, and are not part of formal zoological nomenclature. See #Common (vernacular) names, below, for details.
• Do not italicize connecting terms interpolated into a taxon, such as the label of an infrageneric name; thus: Equus subgenus Hippotigris.
• Do not italicize terms that follow a taxon name in general prose, as they are not part of the name; thus: the various Equus subspecies.
• Do not italicize author names, or abbreviations thereof, juxtaposed with scientific names, as they are not part of the name; thus: Subgenus Potentilla Syme and subgenus Hypargyrium (Fourr.) Juz. have been combined under subgenus Potentilla.
• Do not independently italicize name parts, as in ''Ambystoma'' ''tigrinum'' (unless, of course, separated by non-italic interpolations); this unnecessarily complicates the wikicode of the page.

The bi- or tri-nominal name is conventionally abbreviated if the full version has occurred previously in the same material (and the material does not discuss multiple taxa at the same level that would share the same abbreviation): Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is easily distinguishable from the red-fronted gazelle (E. rufifrons), but not the zoo's E. thomsonii specimen died of an E. coli infection. The last part of the name is never abbreviated: the arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos) is a subspecies of gray wolf (C. lupus), but not Canis lupus arctos is a subspecies of C. l.

Scientific names, like other facts, must be verifiable with reliable sources. In the absence of such a source for a specific assumed usage, use normal descriptive prose, e.g. a domestic cat (Felis catus), of the Van cat type, or the Brussels sprout variant of the domesticated cabbage plant (Brassica oleracea), and do not assert specific taxonomic terms such as "subspecies", "variety", "complex" or "group" without reliable sources. The terms "type", "variant", "sort" and "kind" are usually safe; "landrace", "population" and "breed" also have specific, though non-taxological, meanings and their use may require source citations. The word "type" also has the special meaning of "type specimen", but this is rarely an ambiguity issue. Especially do not make up an assumed scientific name of any kind, like Felis catus van, Felis catus var. Van, Brassica oleracea var. brussels, or Brassica oleracea 'Brussels Sprout', even if you feel you fully understand the principles by which the names are generated (e.g. chimera names and many nothospecies names are portmanteaux of the names of the species or genera that compose them, and so on).

Do not wikilink different parts of scientific names, e.g. to separate genus and species articles, as in ''] ]''; link to the most specific article or article section. It is permissible but not required to used piped links to more general articles from more specific names, for example '']'', and this method is preferred over red-linking if the more specific name (e.g., a subspecies) is mentioned at the more general article. Because redlinks directly encourage the creation of new articles, it is preferable to redlink than to not link at all or to link misleadingly or confusingly, e.g. to an article that does not mention the term being linked from. If the more specific name is not in fact mentioned in the more general target article, it is then better to link only part of the name: ''] guatemalensis''. Never misleadingly wikilink part of a scientific name, e.g. to its naturalist or geographical namesake, as in ''Liriodendron ]ense''; the article on the topic can discuss the namesake.

Do not append information about taxonomic authors (as in Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) to scientific names except where especially important. This author information is almost never needed outside of biology articles, and need not be repeated within one. Cases where this information is useful include at first occurrence in the biological article about that taxon (in which case this is usually done in the infobox), or non-repetitively in coverage of taxonomic disputes and developments. In such cases, link to notable taxonomists' articles here, and avoid abbreviating any who are not notable and linked (''Felis catus'' ], 1758 is permissible), since otherwise non-specialist readers will not understand who the referents are, as in Hypargyrium (Fourr.) Juz.. Give a full surname with at least one initial if there is no author article to link to: Hypargyrium (P. J. Fourreau) S. V. Juzepczuk; linking to redlinks, as in ''Hypargyrium'' (]) ] in such a case is of course not helpful since it still begs the question. Note: Using parentheses or not around an author's name has specific meaning in taxonomy (beyond the scope of this guideline), which varies from field to field, and is not a typographic whim.

Where there is a generally accepted common name, it is best to give both the common and scientific name at first occurrence (and if two common names are very prevalent, especially in different varieties of English, give both): the guinea pig or cavy (Cavia porcellus); Cavia porcellus (cavies or guinea pigs). Exact formatting varies by context, but parentheses are the most common usage.

Derived uses in non-biological contexts are not italicized: The largest carnivore in family Tyrannosauridae was T. rex itself, but Unicorn is an album by the band T. Rex.

Common (vernacular) names

Capitalization

Lower-case initial letters are used for each part of the common (vernacular) names of species, genera, families and all other taxonomic levels (bacteria, zebra, bottlenose dolphin, mountain maple, gray wolf), except where they contain a proper name (Przewalski's horse, Amur tiger, Roosevelt elk).

A group of editors, at WikiProject Birds, have arrived at a disputed local consensus to propose, based on current and historic usage among those who study birds academically, that common names of bird species or subspecies as published by the International Ornithological Congress or regional nomenclature authorities should be capitalized in ornithology articles, with lower case used for common names of groups of species (the Golden Eagle is a relatively large eagle). The Manual of Style does not endorse this capitalization, but has recommended, as of March 2012, ignoring it until such time as a site-wide consensus settles the matter, rather than engaging in any further editwarring over it. Do not apply such capitalization to any other category. Even this would-be "exception" is regarded by many Wikipedians as grammatically incorrect and an inappropriate imposition of specialist journal style on a general-purpose encyclopedia; such capitalization has been a source of continual controversy since ca. 2004. In a capitalized hyphenated bird name, the word after the hyphen is normally not capitalized, if not a proper name, per basic English grammar rules (Red-winged Blackbird, not Red-Winged Blackbird). There are rare exceptions in bird naming which can be complicated (e.g., if the hyphen separates two bird type names, as in "Sunda Cuckoo-shrike", whether or not the species in question is a member of the group after the hyphen may determine whether that part of the name is capitalized or remains hyphenated), and WP:BIRDS has more information on what rules apply and how. Use a consistent style of capitalization within an article, including those covering two or more taxonomic groups (in which case, capitalize only if it is principally an ornithological article).

As of March 2012, wikiprojects for some groups of organisms are in the process of converting to sentence case where title case was previously used. Some articles may not have been changed yet. This is true of many mammal articles, notably rodents and bovids.

Names of breeds, varieties, landraces and other groupings

The common names of formal breeds of animals and formal varieties of domesticated plants are conventionally capitalized; the vast majority of them are derived from proper names, and it is unreasonable to expect editors or readers to know which ones are not and lower-case them. Examples: Manx Loaghtan sheep, Siamese cat, Napa cabbage, Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Sanguinello orange, Calabrese broccoli. The general type of organism (e.g. sheep, cat, cabbage, orange) is never capitalized, unless it is always an integral part of the name, usually to avoid ambiguity (e.g. Norwegian Forest Cat, because "Norwegian Forest" would be interpreted as a woodland in Norway, not a cat breed). Rule of thumb: If you can reasonably refer in context to the breed or variety without the type, the type is optional and is not capitalized: my cat is a Siamese and I prefer Taroccos to Sanguinellos, but not my cat is a Norwegian Forest which makes no sense except to a cat expert, nor I have a Labrador Retriever Dog, which is redundant.

Landraces (reliably identifiable regional phenotypes that are not formal breeds/varieties) are not capitalized, except where a proper name occurs: St. John's water dog, Van cat, Grenada pigeon pea. Registration of a landrace by a fanciers', breeders', horticultural, agricultural, conservation, scientific or regulatory organization, e.g. as a pseudo-breed for pedigree purposes or a population for legal protection, does not change this. As an example, the non-purebred domestic cat with long hair is the domestic long-haired cat, even if the CFA has designated it the "Domestic Longhair" for CFA's own internal database purposes.

The common name of a natural grouping of species, domesticated type of organism, or collective term for a range of breeds or varieties, is always written in lower case (except where a proper name occurs): New World monkeys, slime mold, rove beetles, great apes, mountain dogs, a spitz-type dog breed, triticale, blood oranges, Brussels sprouts, Northern European short-tailed sheep. This also applies to an individual organism of indeterminate species: some kind of antelope.

Lead section

When a common (vernacular) name is used as the article title, the boldfaced common name is followed by the italic un-boldfaced scientific name in round parentheses in the opening sentence of the lead section. Alternative names should be mentioned and reliably sourced in the text where applicable, with bold type in the lead if they are in wide use, or elsewhere in the article (with or without the bold type, per editorial discretion) if they are less used. It is not necessary to include non-English common names, unless they are also commonly used in English, e.g. regionally; if included, they should be italicized as non-English.

• Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is the most common gazelle of East Africa ...
• Grunters or tigerperches are fishes in the family Terapontidae ...
• The rove beetles are a large family (Staphylinidae) of beetles ...

When the article title is the scientific name, reverse the order of the scientific and common name (if any of the latter are given), italicize the scientific name, and boldface both. Do no boldface a long list of common names.

• Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) is a species of Vitis, native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia ...

Brassica oleracea is the species of plant that includes many common foods as cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, savoy, and Chinese kale ...

Footnotes and further reading

1. Various nomenclature codes are compared in Jeffrey, C. (1989). Biological Nomenclature (3rd ed.). London, UK: Edward Arnold Books.
2. The International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) preface states of italicization of order and family: "The Code sets no binding standard in this respect, as typography is a matter of editorial style and tradition not of nomenclature." Most peer-reviewed scientific botanical publications do not italicize names above the rank of genus, and non-botanical scientific publications do not (except in virology; the ICTV adopted an italicization convention in the 1990s, which is ignored outside of that field).

Conforming edits to existing guidelines

The following material would not remain a part of this guideline, but rather reflects changes to make to existing guideline pages.

WP:Manual of Style

It is proposed to change this to:

WP:Manual of Style/Capital letters

It is proposed to change this to:

WP:Manual of Style/Text formatting

It is proposed to change this to:

WP:Manual of Style/Lead section

It is proposed to change this to:

WP:Naming conventions (fauna)#Capitalisation and italicisation

No changes are recommended other than fixing cross-references: {{more|WP:Manual of Style/Organisms}} and changing "per WP:Manual of Style/Text formatting#Italic face" to "per WP:Manual of Style/Organisms#Scientific names".

• Misplaced Pages proposals