44 K. Sreedevi et al.
Systematics forms the basis for any life science
studies and advancement as it is important to all
other fields of biology. It builds up the informa-
tion on biodiversity of species. Taxonomy, a part
of systematics is the basic scientific discipline of
biology that gives the identity and background of
the organism, on which all other related sciences
rely. Systematics, in addition to classification and
naming, also deals with the relationships and en-
vironmental adaptations, thus drawing attention
to the evolution and phylogeny. The morphologi-
cal, physiological, ecological, behavioral, geo-
graphic, and molecular characters of the organ-
ism, in aggregate, are considered for the holistic
approach in systematics.
Insect Diversity
Now-a-days there is a good understanding of
many things on the planet Earth and also the Uni-
verse but we are still lagging behind on knowl-
edge of how many species or life exist on the
earth. The term “biodiversity”, coined by Wilson
( 1988 ) as a contraction of “biological diversity”,
represents the diversity of life at all levels includ-
ing genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity and
is the core of natural resources for sustainable
development and biotic capital for sustenance of
life-support system (Kim and Byrne 2006 ).
The fundamental unit of biodiversity—spe-
cies—serves as focal point for studying the full
panoply of life, allowing workers to zoom in and
out along a scale from molecule to ecosystem. The
species-centered view also provides a vital focus
for conserving life forms and understanding the
causes of declining biodiversity (Alder and Foottit
2009 ). The process of discovery and description of
all species is at very slow pace. This now appears
unlikely to resolve the question in the near future,
if at all, for a variety of reasons such as the slow
rate of description of new species, the high level of
synonymy for most groups and the uneven distri-
bution of taxonomic effort which results in deficits
in the known number of species for many species-
rich groups like insects (Stork 1993 ).
Most eukaryote species awaiting description
are insects (Raven and Yeates 2007 ), which are
the world’s most diverse group of animals, mak-
ing up more than 58 % of the known global bio-
diversity. The insects are known to be the most
successful and diverse animals on earth and are
closely associated with our lives and affect the
welfare of humanity in diverse ways. At the same
time, large number of insect species, including
those not known to science, continue to become
extinct or extirpated from local habitats world-
wide. Our knowledge of insect biodiversity is
far from complete. Insects are the most exuber-
ant manifestation of earth’s many and varied
life forms. The members of the class Insecta,
arranged in 29 orders with more than 1 million
described species (Grimaldi and Engel 2005 ; Ar-
illo and Engel 2006 ), deserve serious attention
of the taxonomists. Four of these orders—the
Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepi-
doptera—account for 81 % of all the described
species of living insects. A growing number of
world checklists and catalogs are available on-
line for various families and orders, yet many
to find a place. Outfitted with search functions,
they provide another tool for handling the taxo-
nomic juggernaut of new species and nomencla-
tural changes. We can foresee a global registry
of species in the near future that is updated with
each new species or synonym, allowing real-time
counts for any taxon. It is imminent that insect
biodiversity research must take cognizance of
its material, taxonomy, insect pest management
related requirements in light of recent develop-
ments viz molecular taxonomy, bioinformatics,
information technology, and other advancements
(Ramamurthy 2003 ). Though 2010 has been
designated International Year of Biodiversity
by the Convention on Biological Diversity and
the United Nations (Johns 2010 ), taxonomy, that
strengthens the knowledge of biodiversity, is on
constant decline (Wilson 1985 ; 2004 ).Need for Insect Taxonomy
Huge is the biodiversity of insects and little is
known from all the fronts. Species identity and
information is the foremost step for advanced
studies in any direction and that’s where system-
atics has a big role to play in. Despite the ongoing
biodiversity crisis, the number of new species de-