biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a

taxonomic rank In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of or ...

directly below

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

. In the

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted Convention (norm), convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific name, scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the I ...

, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

: e.g. the tiger cowry of the Indo-Pacific, ''Cypraea'' (''Cypraea'') ''tigris'' Linnaeus, which belongs to the subgenus ''Cypraea'' of the genus ''Cypraea''. However, it is not mandatory, or even customary, when giving the name of a species, to include the subgeneric name. In the

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

(ICNafp), the subgenus is one of the possible subdivisions of a genus. There is no limit to the number of divisions that are permitted within a genus by adding the prefix "sub-" or in other ways as long as no confusion can result. Article 4 The secondary ranks of section and series are subordinate to subgenus. An example is ''Banksia'' subg. ''Isostylis'', a subgenus of the large Australian genus '' Banksia''. The ICNafp requires an explicit "connecting term" to indicate the rank of the division within the genus. Connecting terms are usually abbreviated, e.g. "subg." for "subgenus", and are not italicized. In zoological nomenclature, when a genus is split into subgenera, the originally described population is retained as the "nominotypical subgenus" or "nominate subgenus", which repeats the same name as the genus. For example, ''Panthera'' (''Panthera'') ''pardus'', a leopard. In botanical nomenclature the same principle applies, although the terminology is different. Thus the subgenus that contains the original type of the genus ''Rhododendron'' is ''Rhododendron'' subg. ''Rhododendron''. Such names are called "autonyms".

ICNafp The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all th ...

, Art. 22.1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Subgenus Botanical nomenclature Plant taxonomy rank19 Bacterial nomenclature

See also

References