Taxon

1.       Order. The category includes one or more related families. Thus the family solanaceae is placed in the order in the order Polemoniales alongwith four other related families, Similarly, the families felidae  and conidae are included under the order carnivore alobgwith hyaenidae and ursidae.

2.       Class. A class is made of one or more related orders. Zfpr example. The class dicotydoneae of flowering plants contains all dicots which are grounds into several orders, Likewise, class mammalian of animals includes all mammals which  range from bats kangaroos, rodents, whales carnivores to great apes and man.

3.       Division or Phylum. It is a category higher than that for class. The term phylum is used for animals while division is commonly employed for plants. A division or phylum is formed of one or more classes. The phylum chordata of animals contains not only the class mammalian but aves, reptilian, amphibian, cyclostamata, chondrichthyes, osteichthyes, etc. The division spermatophyta in plants has similarly seven classes of gymnosperms and two classes of angiosperms.

4.       Kingdom. It is the highest taxonomic category. All pants are included in Kingdom Plantae while all animals belong to kingdom animalia.

Taxon  

It is a unit in classification which may represent any level of grouping organisms based on certain easily observable common characteristics like Maize, Roses, grasses, conifers, dicots seed pants rtc. The term was introduced for the first time by ICBN during 1956. Mayr has defined taxon to be a taxonomic group of any rank that is sufficiently distinct to be a worthy of being assigned to a definite category. Simpson recognises taxon to be a group of real organisms recognized as a formal unit at any level of hierarchical  classification.

There is some confusion bin to use of taxon and category. Bryophyta is a taxon while division is a category. Similarly Zea mays is a taxon while species is a category. Thus while category represents an abstract term, taxon represents the real organisms. Certain common names represent species while other represent genus, family order, class or phylum

Techniques, procedures and stored information that are useful in identification and classification of organisms are called taxons aids. They are required because taxonomic study of plants animals and other organisms are basic to almost all branches of biological studies for their proper identification and finding their relationships with others. Identification of organisms requires both field studies and intensive laboratory studies. A prime source of taxonomic studies is the collection and preservation of actual specimens of plants and animals. The information about habitat. Habits and other observable traits is also recorded along with the specimen. Other sources are visits to centers having live or preserved specimens. Keys are important tools used in identification.