Scientific Name Decoding - helpful link

[demicheru]

Ok, I did a somewhat quick search of the boards and I didn't see anything that looked relevant, so I hope I'm not duplicating something someone else already did.

I just found a good website for those wondering just what Haplopelma or Brachypelma means...i've gathered that -pelma refers to the foot (I guess more specifically the sole of the foot, or in this case, claw)

http://www.phthiraptera.org/Classical Roots/

This is the directory, broken down alphabetically. Say you want to know what Haplo means...click on "Classical_H.html" and scroll down...you'll see that haplo means "simple, or single". or Brachy means "short". This won't necessarily tell you why that genus has that designation, but it gives some good clues for that. At a genus level, things are probably going to be descriptive or based on a unique or identifying characteristic of that genus. So a Haplopelma has a simple claw or single on the tip of the legs (maybe specific legs, I don't know...) and a Brachypelma has short claws...

I haven't looked for every genus name that I know, but there are a lot of roots (Greek and Latin) up there. I didn't see anything for "tigrinawesseli" though...j/k

hope this helps someone!

-philip

 

[Mina]

I haven't looked for every genus name that I know, but there are a lot of roots (Greek and Latin) up there. I didn't see anything for "tigrinawesseli" though...j/k

hope this helps someone!

-philip[/QUOTE]

The reason, if I remember correctly, you didn't find anything on tigrinawesseli is because the two people who discovered it wanted to name it to different things. One wanted tirgrana and the other ones last name was Wesseli or something close to it. They couldn't agree so they combined both of their choices. So it doesn't have a Latin or Greek meaning.

 

[demicheru]

hehe, I was actually just kidding. I know most species names aren't going to be derived from any sort of latin/greek root. Whoever first describes them in "the literature" usually gets to name them, and a lot of times they're named for that person (lots of smithis!) or the region where they were first found (hm...i can't quickly think of any examples here - oops!). Of course, if you look at pokies, a lot have species names that are more descriptive - regalis, ornata, striata, etc.