Names for sale

[Doug Yanega]

Jef Veldkamp wrote:

>   Nomina politica are of course nothing new. Among flowering plants
>we have the Napoleonaeaceae with Napoleonaea imperialis. Victoria regia
>is another. There is supposed to be a beetle called Hitleria goebelsi.
>
>a. Is this information correct? If so, what are the name, author, and
>   publication?
>b. How ethical is it to sell names of new taxa?
>c. Wouldn't you like a piece of the cake?
>d. How much at least?

You're probably thinking of _Rochlingia hitleri_ Guthorl, 1934 a giant
fossil insect. See Canadian J. Zool. 61: 1684 for a discussion.

In further hopes of averting a flood of everyone recalling their favorite
honorifics...for other honorifics, there are quite a few in animals, at
both generic and species levels, and I have a list of some of the catchier
ones, though I doubt many of these have been for pay:

Bobbichthys (fish)
Discoverichthys (fish)
Goodrichthys (fish)
Petula, Clarke 1971 (lace bug)
Zappa (goby)
Bobkabata kabatabobbus (parasitic copepod named after Bob Kabata)
Dicrotendipes thanatogratus, Epler 1987 (midge; epithet means "Grateful Dead")
Draculoides bramstokeri, Harvey & Humphreys 1995 (spider)
Erechthias beeblebroxi, Robinson & Nelson 1993 (lace bug with false head;
after Zaphod Beeblebrox, character from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
with two heads)
Hoia hoi (parasitic copepod named after Ju-Shey Ho)
Mozartella beethoveni (wasp)
Sorolopha bruneiregalis, Tuck & Robinson 1994 (tortricid moth; after Royal
Brunei Airlines)
Strigiphilus garylarsoni, Clayton (owl louse)

Arnold Menke's classic list from BOGUS has several more, such as

Cartwrightia cartwrightii, Cartwright 1967 (beetle)
Geoballus caputalbus, Crabill 1969 (millipede named after George Ball and
Donald Whitehead)
Leonardo davincii, Blezynski 1965 (pyralid moth)
Mastophora dizzydeani, Eberhard 1984 (bola spider)
Montypythonoides riversleighensis, Smith & Plane 1985 (fossil snake)
Polemistus chewbacca, Menke 1983 (wasp)
Polemistus vaderi ditto

(anyone who can supply authors/dates for some of the names above is invited
to e-mail me to update the list)
Cheers,

Doug Yanega       Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA      phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949
 affiliate, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dept. of Entomology
          http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu:80/~dyanega/my_home.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82