Insularis

Insularis is a Latin adjective meaning "of an island" or "island-dwelling." In the biological sciences, it is commonly used as a species epithet in zoological and botanical names to indicate that a taxon originates from an island or is otherwise associated with an island environment. The ending of insularis is shaped to agree with the gender of the genus in the binomial name (for masculine or feminine genera, insularis; for neuter, insulare).

As a descriptor rather than a taxonomic rank, insularis helps convey geographic and ecological information about a taxon. Names bearing insularis often reflect island endemism or isolation, which in turn can be linked to distinctive evolutionary trajectories observed in island biogeography. This has connections to broader concepts such as insularity, island endemism, and island dwarfism, where isolation and limited resources can drive notable morphological and ecological changes.

In practice, insularis appears across a wide range of organisms, from plants to animals, wherever the taxonomy aims to signal island association. It is one of many Latin epithets used to encode geographic or ecological context within scientific names, contributing to the descriptive precision of taxonomy without implying any rank or higher-level classification on its own.