-Kumudinee, Subject Matter Expert at Edumarz.
Solution: A group of individual living organisms with basic, fundamental similarities and resemblance is known as species.
It can be distinguished from other closely related species on the basis of distinctive morphological differences due to variation in genetic makeup.
In case of higher plants and animals, one genus may have one or more than one species and these categories are based on distinctive morphology among organisms, e.g., Panthera leo (lion) and Panthera tigris (tiger).
In this example, Panthera is a genus, which includes leo (lion) and tigris (tiger) as species.
In case of bacteria, different categories are present on the basis of shape and cellular structure.
These are spherical, coccus, rod-shaped, comma and spiral-shaped. Hence, the meaning of species in case of higher organisms and bacteria are different.