What is Taxonomy?

Taxonomy is the science of classification of living things. It uses hierarchy of progressively smaller groups, from kingdom to species, and organizes living things in a way that reflects their evolutionary links. Given below are the principal groups used in classification. In addition to these, taxonomists use a number of intermediate groups, such as suborders or superfamilies.

KINGDOM
One of the overall categories of life, containing organisms that share fundamental features.

PHYLUM
A major grouping within a kingdom; knows as a ‘division’ in the classification of plants and fungi.

CLASS
A major part of a phylum.

ORDER
A part of a class, consisting of one or more families.

FAMILY
A large collection of species that share a number of important physical features.

GENUS
A narrower group containing a small number of species that share many features.

SPECIES
A collection of living things that interbreed in the wild, producing similar offspring.

Source: DK Illustrated Oxford Dictionary

• In the system of classification used by most modern biologists, living things are organized into five kingdoms.
• The smallest kingdom, in terms of species so far indentified, is the Kingdom Monera, which contains bacteria – single-celled organisms that are the simplest forms of life.
• The Kingdom Protista also contains single-celled organisms, together with some multicellular algae, but their ells are larger and more complex than those of monerans.
• Most members of the Kingdom Fungi are multicellular, and live by absorbing organic matter from their surroundings.
• All plants, Kingdom Plantae, are multicellular, and live by photosynthesis. This large kingdom contains some 400,000 known species.
• All insects fall under Phylum Arthropoda of the Kingdom Animalia.

Welcome to Grasslords!

Welcome to Grasslords, wildlife in my garden! The first Indian blog exclusively on insects! Do you know every one of us lives very close to the wildlife, in fact amidst it? And yet, we are hardly aware of it. For us, wildlife means the beasts in jungles, thickets or large animals at the local zoo. But everyday we share our residences, offices, schools, shopping malls with a thousand other creatures of the wild. Yes, I am talking about the insects – true lords of the grass! They are so common and so small that we hardly consider them wildlife.

But when you pause to take a closer look at these marvels of nature, you will be astounded by the diversity, complexity and beauty of these GrassLords! Every creature is a product of millions of years of evolution and a true wonder. They come in various sizes and shapes. Some are so small that a square patch of grass in your backyard is an Amazon for them. All you have to do to witness this world is go to your garden or the nearest park and look closely. Or, better, you can simply watch them through our lens. Visit us everyday as we update shots of these critters. All of the insects in our insect blog are not rare creatures found in remote parts of the globe. They are the wild of our own! They grow in our very own gardens and backyards. They are the perfect Indian insect species!

(Note: Extreme care was taken to see that these creatures were not harmed in any way while shooting. We wanted to shoot them in their natural habitat.)

We have included points of interest in every post, so you can truly appreciate these creatures. But please remember, we are not experts and we know only as much as you do. So some notes may be amateurish. We are, of course, taking extensive help of the experts from various forums to identify and tell us more about these creatures. We have made a mention of these people in every post. You can contact them anytime if your interest is stirred.

Enjoy your stay with these beasts of the grasses!