Question

What is different about the way the genus and species names are written compared to the other taxa?

Answer 1

The way genus and species name are written are different from other taxa as both the genus and species name should be in italics and the first letter of genus name should be in capital and other letters should be in small and the species name should also be in small letters.

This rule is called binomial nomenclature and this rule does not follow to other taxa of the hierarchy so they are not italicized. This rule avoid confusion generated by common names by giving them a scientific name which is same and unique in every part of world.

Example: Panthera leo is scientific name of lion.

Answer 2

A genus may contain several species. To avoid confusion, since there are so many species, there are some that may share the same name, thus when writing the name of a species the genus is usually written along with it. Sometimes genus can be abbreviated with a single letter. You do not capitalized the species name, whereas the other taxon names are capitalized. Genus and species names are italicized but never with the other taxon names.