[Taxacom] a question of Latin ...

[Michael Heads]

Hi Stephen and Curtis,

It seems to be a bit more complicated than that. In classical Latin
'advena' was used mainly (only?) as a noun in apposition. It's also used
this way in many binomials (e.g. the beetle Ahasverus advena).

But in a great many binomials it has been used as an adjective - a quick
Google search revealed genera with masculine names in plants, Coleoptera,
Diptera, Hymenoptera, Homoptera, Phthiraptera, fishes, birds and mammals
that include species named 'advenus'. Lewis and Short (still the standard
reference for later Latin) lists 'advena' as both a noun and an adjective.

So, no need to change all the names with advenus.
Michael Heads
On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Curtis Clark <lists at curtisclark.org> wrote:

> On 8/1/2012 4:56 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
> > Does anyone know if the specific epithet advena is unchangeable when the
> gender of the genus changes? In other words, is there such an epithet as
> advenus?
>
> It's a noun in apposition, so it would always be advena. The
> corresponding adjective seems to be adventicius.
>
> --
> Curtis Clark        http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
> After 2012-01-02:
> Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4140
> Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768
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