Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Arthropods/Style suggestions

Drosophila is a poor choice for an example of capitalizing genus names. Most often when the word drosophila appears in isolation it refers to D. melanogaster, not the entire genus. While using genus as a common name has a respectable history (e.g., iris, hippopotamus, magnolia), the genus name isn't capitalized when used as a common name. Usage for drosophila and other model organisms is still evolving. While they usually show up capitalized, there have been formal recommendations in journals dealing with research on model organisms to keep the genus name lower case when it is used as a common name.

Start a discussion about improving the Wikipedia:WikiProject Arthropods/Style suggestions page

Start a discussion