The description of all the species present in nature is a vast task to be fulfilled by using the
classical approach of morphological description of the organisms. In recent years, the
traditional taxonomy, based primarily on identification keys of species, has shown a number
of limitations in the use of the distinctive features in many animal taxa and inconsistencies
with the genetic data. Furthermore, the increasing need to get a true estimate of biodiversity
has led Zoological Taxonomy to seek new approaches and methodologies to support the
traditional methods. The classification procedure has added modern criteriasuch as the
evolutionary relationships and the genetic, biochemical and morphological characteristics of
the organisms.Until now the Linnean binomial was the only abbreviated code associated with
the description of the morphology of a species. The new technologies aim to achieve a short
nucleotide sequence of the DNA to be used as an unique and solely label for a particular
species, a specific genetic barcode. For both morphological and genetic approaches, skills and
experience are required.
Taxonomy is one of zoological disciplines that has been benefited from the achievements
reached by modern molecular biotechnology. Using a molecular approach it is possible to
identify cryptic species, to establish a family relationship between species and their
membership of taxonomic categories or to reconstruct the evolutionary history of a taxon