ibericus/a/um & Russian authors

[Alexey Solodovnikov]

Dear Paul,

PG> A large number of species names with the epitheton "iberic*" were published
PG> by several Russian authors to designate plants found in the Caucasian
PG> region. .........................

PG> The Iberian Peninsula (Portugal & Spain) also has seen many of its own
PG> species described with a similar epitheton.

PG> My problem : I have no clue to the origin of the Caucasian "iberic*".
PG> Is this based on a historical name of a village, mountain, subregion ?

You touched the question which puzzled me years ago. Yes,
there are many taxa described from the Caucasus as "iberic*".
And definitely they are not derived from the name of some recent
montain, river, village, or any other well-defined recent toponym.
When I first paid attention to "iberic*-problem,
I tried to read something about this, but, being busy with other things,
unfortunately dropped the search. Somewhow (maybe I read
something, or maybe it is my suggestion to be checked) I have the
following idea about this coincidence in names. As
far as I have an idea about it, Iberia in the Caucasus is some
historical irea in the Transcaucasia (somehow in my mind coinciding
with Georgia). The clue to the problem, why it appeared so that there
are two "Iberia's" in so remoted and different areas as Caucasus
and European peninsula, probably should be seeked in the long-ago
history, probably back to the times when Muslim dominance was widely
spread: as to the Caucasus, so and to Iberian peninsula.

Your poster raised my forgotten interest to this again, and after weekend
I will be able to get access to some literature, and to talk to
colleagues about this.

One more strong recollection of mine. When I was travelling in
Georgia, and watched local willage peasants working in their land
pieces, I was impressed how strange is, that ethnographic Georgian
pictures resembled me an image of rural Spain (obtained from books,
pictures, movies etc. - I never was in Spain). Was it just
coincidence?

Anyway, I guess that the clue to the problem is in the term
"Iberia" itself. When and where it appeared?  What did it mean,
etc.? Why the European penisula is called Iberian? Mybe the name
is derived from some ethnic tribe? This probably could give some
historical/geographical light to our quiestion.

But warning: maybe this is wrong way, I am not sure. I will try
to check in a couple of days.

Sincerely,
Alexey.
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Alexey Solodovnikov
Laboratory of Insect Taxonomy
Zoological Institute Rus. Acad. Sci.
Universitetskaya nab. 1, St. Petersburg
199034 RUSSIA
phone: +7 812 328 12 12
fax:   +7 812 114 04 44
e-mail: asolodovnikov at mail.ru
http://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Coleoptera/eng/solodovn.htm
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