Heteropoda latin name question

[fengzi]

My dad pointed out heteropoda may mean "differing feet" and I was wondering why this is used for some species of huntsman spiders.

Do all their feet/legs differ from each other in some way?

 

[The Snark]

I suspect there is a private competition in scientific circles as to the most vague ambiguous name possible.

 

[DaveM]

Look at how different their legs and feet are, with the front legs significantly larger than the rear.

 

[fengzi]

Look at how different their legs and feet are, with the front legs significantly larger than the rear.

Do you have an example species or image that shows the vast difference?

 

[DaveM]

Do you have an example species or image that shows the vast difference?

Photo 18282517, (c) Cheng-Tao Lin, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Cheng-Tao Lin · iNaturalist

www.inaturalist.org

Domestic Huntsman Spider - Heteropoda venatoria

1 imago, seen 2019-01-19 Sao Tome (World)

observation.org

Should add: how differently they typically hold their front two pairs of legs than the rear two pairs, when legs are splayed out.

 

[The Snark]

Look at how different their legs and feet are, with the front legs significantly larger than the rear.

Then their name should be heterocrus, or maybe heterocruses. Just saying.
If we go by the feet of numerous species of prowling hunting spiders the clawed foot is quite similar and the name should thus be Homospoda.

And BTW, if we go entirely by majority similarity traits, humans should properly be called Homostultus.

 

[DaveM]

by majority similarity traits, humans should properly be called Homostultus

Priceless! Ne permittas stultos homines deridere te, Snark!

Sapiens, indeed. Taxonomy is rife with misnomers, but binomial nomenclature succeeds nonetheless, until you get down into organisms with so much horizontal gene transfer that even strain designations are suspect.

 

[The Snark]

even strain designations are suspect.

Along with the sanity and distance removed from planet earth in the case of some of those scientists.

 

[ForTW]

In German those are also called crab spiders because of their unusual frontwards facing legs. Something unique and diffrent to Most spiders.