Common names of plants and animals often differ dramatically from country to country. In the past, this caused endless confusion and misunderstanding among scientists. To resolve this difficulty, 16th-century naturalists developed a standardised naming scheme that was later perfected by Carl Linnaeus. Under this scheme, each species has a two-part name. The first is the genus name, which is shared by several closely related species. The second is the species name.
To promote stability, there are rules governing the naming of species. Even so, names sometimes change, and species can be moved from one genus to another on the basis of new insights.
Most name changes go unnoticed by non-specialists and the general public. The imminent renaming of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an exception. This species is one of the most widely used in biology. It is often referred to simply as drosophila - a name that can ...
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