Abstract
The variety of living forms bewilders us with its diversity. However, more detailed inspection reveals strong threads of unity running throughout. Systematics identifies these threads and uses them to devise useful groupings, or classifications, of organisms. These groupings enable biologists to identify specific kinds of organisms, i.e., to recognize whether or not a given organism has been previously described and where it fits relative to other organisms. Thus, 3 fundamental tasks of biosystematics are to establish identifications, provide descriptions and erect classifications. Modern biology recognizes organisms as the products of millions of years of evolution and therefore classifications are viewed logically as reflecting, to a greater or lesser extent, phylogenetic relationships. As with all biological sciences, systematics constantly changes. New species are described and classifications are erected, modified and corrected. Each change moves our understanding of phylogeny closer to the truth. For additional information on the role of systematics in entomology, see Danks (1988).
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Romoser, W.S. (2004). Introduction to Arthropods: Systematics, Behavior and Ecology. In: Eldridge, B.F., Edman, J.D. (eds) Medical Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1009-2_3
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