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Hi, Rusty!
I have been all this time searching for an informative explanation for you!
This is the best I could find...I hope it is helpful.
It seems to cover most eventualities!
https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/course/zo150/mozley/nomencla.html
You could keep it in Favourites for reference if you do not want to read it now!
( P.S. I do not think I shall ever get to the bottom of an "&lit"!)

Very useful link, elle. I thought that I was fairly up with the conventions, but was news to me that the levels above Genus should not be italicised.

Hello, Chris........yes, this was the best link that I found.
I have "saved" it for future reference!

Hello, Elle!
That was very interesting!
I hope you are not going to ask me questions about it.
If I were you I'd forget all about whatever "&lit" means.
You are doing fine as it is.
I have been doing puzzles for 30 years and not knowing "&lit" has not held me back.
The day has brightened here at last.
Miss La Bamba does not need me to collect her from work today.
Mum is doing it!

Good evening, Rusty!
Yes, I thought it was an interesting link, too....
I shall hopefully take more on board next time I read it!
My capacity for instant absorption becomes more limited, as I grow older!
I am encouraged if you have really been doing crosswords for so long?
I have only been attempting cryptic puzzles for...what ?.... about three years?
There is hope - and scope - for me yet, then !
I do feel that I am making gradual improvement at times.
And then I will miss something really obvious.......
But in Eggheads, I knew that the bird shown on the reverse of the farthing was a wren!
You mentioned her mum picking up Miss L-B today.......does this mean she is still without her car?
Is the garage no nearer solving the source of the "leak"?
I hope it will not prove an expensive repair.

Hello, Elle,
The garage has turned a hose on the car in an effort to find where the water is getting in.
They still have it.
What with Mum, Dad, Miss O, and me, all drivers, she can do without it for a day or two.
I suspect the door seal, or the door itself needing adjusted on the hinges.
I started out doing the local paper puzzle, Elle, then moved on to the Daily Express puzzle.
I bought the Express because I liked Peter O'Sullevan's articles on horse racing.
Someone suggested I try The Times, and now I have been doing it for over 20 years.
I used to do the Guardian, too.
But one a day is plenty for me now.
Yes, you are progressing steadily, same as most of us do.

Hi, Rusty!
I have just had a second email from Amazon......another book is on its way!
And my daughter has emailed to suggest our going out for lunch tomorrow...her last day of "freedom" before she starts back at work full time.
I do not know as yet where we are going.
I shall miss our weekly "outings"!
It has been fun.
I think though that there are plans to restart "Ladies Who Lunch" next month.
Maybe.......
We shall see what develops!

Hello, Elle!
That's very nice of your daughter inviting you out.
Hope you both have good time.
Yes, you have been quiet on the "Ladies Who Lunch" for some time now.
I think I am going out with my granddaughter/s at the weekend.
I am looking forward to it.

Hi, Rusty!
A second email tells me daughter and YB are arriving here at 10.30am
That will just give me time to get back from the park, and changed out of dog walking gear!
We shall probably go out about midday........it is a short drive to the Toby Carvery , for which she has just expressed a preference.
She will need to leave for home about 2 o'clock, in order to collect BB from school.
Yes, you had planned to go out last Saturday, hadn't you........and then had to postpone.
I hope all goes well for this coming weekend!
Is Miss ATW still away on holiday?
Or is she home now?

Good afternoon, Elle!
I hope you had a nice time with your daughter?
Bit dull here.
I do not know if Miss ATW is home yet.
Not heard from her.
Good puzzle today.
I learned a new fish, and a new bird today.
Chambers OK'd "marge" for "rim". I was dubious.
But, Anne Bradford has it, too.
Apparently it's "poetic".