The common name of a group of viruses belonging to a genus or higher taxon is directly related to the name and has the suffix virus(es). Attempts to introduce common names for higher taxa, ending in ids and ads, have failed:
Members of the order Nidovirales are called nidoviruses.
Members of the family Coronaviridae are called coronaviruses.
Members of the genus Torovirus are called toroviruses.
However, problems arise when the names of taxa of different levels contain the same word stem. Wording such as The tymoviruses occur in a range of plants could be ambiguous because it is unclear whether it refers to all members of the order Tymovirales, all members of 3 genera in the family Tymoviridae or only the species in the genus Tymovirus.
When taxon names – at all levels – are used informally, italics and initial capital letters are not needed:
Six parvoviruses [to describe viruses that are members of the genus Parvovirus]
Common names of virus species are usually the taxonomic name presented in roman instead of italics.
Make sure that you do not use an initial capital and italics when referring to a virus (a physical entity) rather than a taxon (a concept). If the text is about a virus causing disease or the laboratory procedure used in isolating a virus, the virus name should not be capitalised or italicised. Often, the taxon name (initial capitals and italics) only occurs once:
the tobacco mosaic virus polymerase [to describe the properties of the polymerase in tobacco mosaic virus]
Tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum) have been inoculated with tobacco mosaic virus.
not
Tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum) have been inoculated with Tobacco mosaic virus.
Most lyssaviruses occur in bats.
Most lyssaviruses, which are members of the rhabdoviruses, occur in bats.
Names that have not been approved by the ICTV are in roman type, and do not have an initial capital letter:
A new species, eggplant yellow mosaic virus, probably belonging to the genus Begomovirus, has been discovered.
[The name eggplant yellow mosaic virus has not been approved by the ICTV.]
