updated: 23 April 2025
Coming from the houseplants industry myself and growing and selling many different houseplants as a hobby for the past 10 years, I have learnt a few things regarding taxonomy and how a scientific name should be written, along with its cultivar name (in animals we have morphs instead) and how the common name/s (if there are any) should be written. In zoology that does not differ from botany.
These are taxonomy rules that anyone who wishes to stick to the proper way of naming a living organism (plant or animal) that is scientifically and taxonomically correct, should consider using.
Scientific names
Scientific names are officially written in italics with only the first letter of the genus capitalized.
Example: Armadillidium badium.
Thus:
Armadillidium badium is wrong (or only when italics cannot be used)
Armadillidium Badium is wrong
armadillidium badium is wrong
armadillidium Badium is wrong
Subspecies
Subspecies are also written in italics with no capitalization of any letter, except the genus (the first one).
Example: Porcellionides pruinosus burdurensis.
Common names
Not all pets or plants have common names. Common names bring confusion since:
They are local. As such different countries may have different common names in the country’s spoken language, describing in fact the same species. Thus people from different countries cannot communicate regarding one or more species.
When common names are to be used these should follow after the scientific name and inside parenthesis. These are not written in italics with the first letter of each word capitalized.
Example: Porcellio scaber (Rough Isopod)
Thus:
Porcellio scaber “Rough isopod” is wrong
Porcellio scaber ‘Rough isopod’ is wrong
Porcellio scaber “Rough isopod” is wrong
Porcellio scaber “Rough isopod” is wrong
Porcellio scaber ‘Rough isopod‘ is wrong
You get the idea.
Morph names
Morph names indicate a morph that its phenotype (means its appearance) differs from the original species. A morph is created by humans (such as all those corn snake and ball python morphs that we see). Thus it differs from a variety (varietas in Latin), or from a subspecies. A variety or a subspecies is phenotypically different from the original species but it naturally occurred (in nature), not after human intervention.
Example: Porcellionides pruinosus burdurensis is a naturally occurred subspecies that differs from the original Porcellionides pruinosus isopod species.
Morph names are written like the cultivars in plants inside single quotes with the first letter capitalized. They are not written in italics.
Examples:
1) Porcellio bolivari ‘Yellow Ghost’
2) Porcellio ornatus ‘Tangerine Dream’
Thus:
1) Porcellio bolivari “Yellow Ghost” is wrong
2) Porcellio ornatus “Tangerine Dream” is wrong
Both of those examples are morphs created by isopod breeders, after selective cultivation, and isolation of the specific traits in those isopods. In nature some Porcellio bolivari may look like the Porcellio bolivari ‘Yellow Ghost’, and some Porcellio ornatus may look like the Porcellio ornatus ‘Tangerine Dream’, and the same applies to all isopods, but they occurred randomly, not selectively bred for their ghost color/trait or tangerine dream color/trait respectively. And these are usually found in different locations, compared to the common isopod species.
That is the difference between a subspecies/variety and a morph.
Thus the double quotes → “…” should never be used, because they cause confusion, some people are putting the common name inside double quotes and some others the morph name inside double quotes, that brings confusion. If it is a common name you can write it inside parenthesis after the scientific name. If it is a morph, write the trade name inside single quotes.
For example I have seen written → Porcellio scaber “Wild type”. What is that? Porcellio scaber is Porcellio scaber. Porcellio scaber is an isopod species occurring in nature. Porcellio is the genus and scaber the species. Thus “wild type” is an exaggeration and a falsely written taxon name. If you want to add it as a sidenote, write it inside a parenthesis, with small letters, after the taxon name (ie: the species name). If I am to list all the Porcellio scaber isopods that I have, then I will list them in the following fashion:
- Porcellio scaber
- Porcellio scaber ‘Dalmatian’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Ghost’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Moonstone’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Orange’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Orange Calico’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Orange Dalmatian’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Phantom HC’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Piebald’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Red Calico’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Whiteout’
- Porcellio scaber ‘Yellow Calico’
Thus not → Porcellio scaber “Wild type” 😀
I understand, not everyone is familiar with Latin and their pronunciation (personally speaking I love Latin), but at least when writing, we have now a motivation to use correct taxon nomenclature and thus show to others that we are aware of this issue, and on the proper way to write an isopod name. 😉
Useful links: Taxonomical classification
Taxonomical classification databases of invertebrates and terrestrial crustaceans (isopods), are listing the accepted species’ name of each isopod or any other invertebrate / arthropod. Below are the three most important taxonomical databases. Unfortunately for cockroaches I couldn’t find something, and I read that there is not sufficient scientific research on their taxonomy. 🤷
- Isopoda World List (only for isopods)
- Milli Base (only for millipedes and pill millipedes)
- GBIF (for most isopods & invertebrates, linking back to Isopoda World List & Milli Base)
Till next time isopod friends 👋🏻🙂
Exuvium Isopods 
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