Misnomers

[William at]

A familiar example from North American herpetology is the common racer,
_Coluber constrictor_, which does not constrict.  Apparently the
misnomer resulted from confuson between the black racer (_C. c.
constrictor_) and the black rat snake (_Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta_),
which is a constrictor.

Will

Barry M. OConnor wrote:
>
> At 1:07 PM 2/23/98, Matthias Buck wrote:
>
> >sorry I can't add any plant species but I have a very nice example
> >from entomology: Apteromyia (a genus of Sphaeroceridae, Diptera)
> >(= wingless fly)... The flies, however, are fully winged!
>
> And of course, lots of examples in parasitology; my favorite is the African
> tick, Cosmiomma hippopotamensis.  It's never been found on a Hippopotamus.
>
> Barry M. OConnor                phone: (734) 763-4354
> Museum of Zoology               FAX: (734) 763-4080
> University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA

--
Dr. William L. Pratt, Curator of Invertebrates
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Box 4012
Las Vegas, NV 89154-4012
(702)895-1403, fax (702)895-3094 e-mail prattw at nevada.edu