In biological classification, family (Latin: familia, pl.: familiae) is one of the most important ranks, next only to species and genus.
Relative position in the taxonomic hierarchy
The basic ranks are given in bold, the derived, in italics.
- Order (ordo)
...
- - Superfamily (superfamilia)
- - - Family (familia)
- - - - Subfamily (subfamilia)
...
- - - - - Tribe (tribus)
...
- - - - - - Genus (genus)
History of the concept
Family, as an intermediate rank between order and genus, is a relatively recent invention.
The term was used by Carolus Linnaeus in his Philosophia botanica (1751) to denote large groups of plants: trees, herbs, ferns, palmae, etc. He used this division only in the morphological section of the book discussing different varaints of the vegetative and generative organs of plants. In French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo.
In zoology, the families as an intermediate rank between order and genus were introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Présis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used the families (part of them not named) in some but not in all orders of his "insects" (then including all arthropods).
Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the term has been consistently used in its modern sense. Its usage and characteristic ending of the names belonging to this category are defined in the Codes of Botanical and Zoological nomenclature.
See also:
