Question

Which of the following is a species?
A) Tamarindus
B) Indicia
C) Indica
D) Tamarindus indica

Answer 1

Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist who is also known as the father of taxonomy gave the system of nomenclature. This was used for plants as well as animals. It is known as the binomial nomenclature in which each species is given two names.

Complete answer:
A species is a group of individuals with similar morphological characters that breed among themselves and produce their young ones. For example- in onion i.e. Allium cepa, potato i.e. Solanum tuberosum and lion i.e. Panthera leo, so here cepa, tuberosum and Leo are species of genera Allium, Solanum and Panthera respectively.

According to the binomial nomenclature, every species is given a scientific name which includes a generic name that should always start with a capital letter that tells about the genus to which the species belongs. The other is the specific name that indicates the species. For example, the scientific name of wheat is Triticum aestivum where the first word is a generic name while the latter is the species name.

From the above discussion it is easily seen that only option (D) justifies the answer. The species name should be written in small letters which are justified only by the last option.

Note: The generic name and the species name both are in Latin and are printed in italic type. At the time when it is handwritten both the names should be underlined individually. In the taxonomic hierarchy species stand at the end of classification.