Integrated Pest Management Guide

INSECT CLASSIFICATION

Each insect has a common name and a scientific name. The common names are easiest for us to understand and pronounce because they usually describe characteristics of the insect (e.g., "blackheaded fireworm") and are in English. The scientific, or Latin, names are universal. For example, the scientific name "Rhopobota naevana" is understood by entomologists throughout the world.

The scientific name is composed of a genus name (Rhopobota), a species name (naevana), and the authority, or person responsible for naming the insect (Hübner). Each insect species is known by a unique combination of genus name and species name, which are written in italics.

Insects are classified, or grouped, according to their similarities. For example, Rhopobota naevana is grouped with similar small moths in the family Tortricidae. Tortricids and other families of moths are grouped together in the order Lepidoptera - the butterflies and moths.

Here are some examples of insect classification.
 

Plants, animals and fungi also have scientific names and are classified according to the similarity of characteristics.
The class Insecta numbers about one million classified species and is divided into approximately thirty orders. In crop protection, the most important families are: Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Heteroptera, Homoptera, Thysanoptera and Orthoptera. The majority of these orders includes potentially harmful species (pests of crops and trees, predators of food products, biting insects) and beneficial species (pollinators, decomposers, natural enemies of pests, and insects otherwise valuable to people, e.g. the honey bee and the silkworm).

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