Definition:
Taxonomy: The science of classification of organisms. Taxonomy is not just a matter of providing a name for an undescribed species but of deciding what are the closest relatives among species that already have received names and in pinpointing the differences between them. This serves not just as a means of identifying specimens of the various species, but as a means of assembling all information about them. For example, no scientific journal would accept a manuscript about "the mole cricket": the editor would rightly insist that the author of the manuscript should provide the correct species name for whichever mole cricket species was the subject of the manuscript. This has to be so, because the information in the manuscript would be worthless without it. See also identification.