ENTO-6104                                  Principles of Insect Taxonomy                                       3 (2-1)

The students would be able to understand the basic concepts of taxonomic hierarchy, identification, taxonomic characters, variations, taxonomic keys and preparation of taxonomic papers. Course includes description and practical demonstration of different techniques and skills used in the taxonomic discrimination of the insect species. They will learn about the basic concepts and will also be able to understand about the theory and practice of structuring a taxonomic scientific manuscript and about the theory and understanding of zoological nomenclature of insects. Course will also provide understanding to the students about the graphical and numerical representation of taxonomic data related to different insect taxa.Contents (Theory)

1. Introduction
2. History
3. Functions and concepts of insect taxonomy
4. Tasks of taxonomist; taxonomic categories
5. Taxonomic procedures, collection and methods of sampling
6. Identification, taxonomic characters, variations in population and descriptions
7. Taxonomic keys, concepts of  species, kinds of species and phylogenies
8. Preparation of taxonomic papers, code of zoological nomenclature
9. Introduction to numerical and molecular taxonomy; phonetics, cladistics

Contents (Practical)

1. Methods of collection, preservation and labeling of insects
2. Preparation of taxonomic keys
3. Identification of insects, cataloguing and writing descriptions of identified insects
4. Preparation of phenograms, cladogram and phylogenetic trees using morpho-metrics

Recommended Texts

1. Daly, H.V. Doyen, J.T. Purcell, A.H. and Daly, B.B. (1998). Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity. U.K.: Oxford University Press.
2. Kitching, I.,  ForeyP. L.& Humphries,C. J. (1998).Cladistics: Contents and Practice of Parsimony Analysis. U.K.: Oxford University, Press.

Suggested Readings

1. Manzoor, F. (2006). Morphometric Studies on Termite Genus Odontotermes. Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
2. Mayer, E. & Ashlock, P.D. (1991). Principles of Systematic Zoology(2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Inc.
3. Schuh, R. T. & Andrew V. Z. B. (2009). Biological Systematics Principles and Applications. Ithaca,