[Taxacom] a question of Latin ...

Thu Aug 2 13:40:42 CDT 2012

On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 10:41 AM, Richard Petit <r.e.petit at att.net> wrote:
> For an example of W. L. Brown's being "opinionated", a much too charitable
> term, see "The distressing case of Polyhomoa itoi Azuma, 1949 and Kyidris
> mutica Brown, 1949."  It can be downloaded free from
> http://conchologia.com where it is Number 2.

Accusing other scientists of "strong mental aberration" and "sheer,
indisputable dementia" is juuuuust a bit over the top, I agree.

///ark

Mark Wilden
Web Applications Developer
California Academy of Sciences
www.antcat.org

>
> dick p.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Wilden" <mark at mwilden.com>
> To: "Michael Heads" <m.j.heads at gmail.com>
> Cc: <Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 1:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] a question of Latin ...
>
>
>
>> n Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Michael Heads <m.j.heads at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> (The point was really that biologists in the 18th and 19th centuries knew
>>> their Latin).
>>
>>
>> Understood.
>>
>>> Do you have a reference for that, or a name of the source if it's a pers.
>>> comm.?
>>
>>
>> The remark is by W.L. Brown in Ant taxonomy. 1955. In E.L. Kessel, ed.
>> A century of progress in the natural sciences, 1853-1953. pp. 569-572.
>> California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. I may have misquoted it
>> slightly, but not much.
>>
>> I came across this article when I got the job as the AntCat developer
>> at Cal Academy. Before I started working there, I started reading
>> Holldobler and Wilson's Ants, where they mention that "a perceptive
>> and  entertaining account of the early history of ant taxonomy has
>> been written by Brown" (p. 23). It was fun to be able to just wander
>> up to the library at the museum and read the original article on my
>> first day of work.
>>
>> It's opinionated overall, but Brown really opens up a can of whoop-ass
>> on the British Museum's F. Smith. Apparently, Smith was paid by the
>> number of specimens cataloged - hardly a recipe for precision.
>>
>> A small group of prominent myrmecologists trekked to the top of a
>> mountain in Borneo, consumed numerous beers, and alternately read
>> aloud from this article.
>>
>> ///ark
>>
>> Mark Wilden
>> Web Applications Developer
>> California Academy of Sciences
>> www.antcat.org
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Mark WIlden <mark at mwilden.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Aug 1, 2012, at 9:41 PM, Michael Heads <m.j.heads at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > . Frederick Smith
>>>> > (British Museum, President of the Royal Entomological Society, Darwin
>>>> > correspondent etc.) named Prolasius advenus and Cabro advenus. (He was
>>>> > the
>>>> > first entomologist to publish descriptions of more than a hundred ant
>>>> > species that still hold validity).
>>>>
>>>> Smith's work was of such low quality that one myrmecological giant said
>>>> that "it would have been better if he had never seen an ant".
>>>>
>>>> ///ark
>>>> Mark Wilden
>>>> California Academy of Sciences
>>>> www.antcat.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > Amos Eaton (who taught James Dwight
>>>> > Dana, Asa Gray, John Torrey etc.) named the fly Telmatoscopus advenus.
>>>> > Vernon Kellogg, professor of entomology at Stanford for 26 years (he
>>>> > taught
>>>> > the scientist president Herbert Hoover) named the louse Rallicola
>>>> > adventus.
>>>> > Baron Karl-Robert von Osten-Sacken was the Russian consul general in >
>>>> > New
>>>> > York in the American civil war, and is also known as an entomologist >
>>>> > (he
>>>> > introduced the trem chaetotaxy); he named the tephritid Torymus >
>>>> > advenus
>>>> > Alcide d'Orbigny, the well-known student of Cuvier, named the foram
>>>> > Cibicides advenus.
>>>> > Michael
>>>> >
>>>> > On Thu, Aug 2, 2012 at 3:27 PM, Stephen Thorpe
>>>> > <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> well, just because you can find binomials which use advenus doesn't
>>>> >> mean
>>>> >> that they are correct -  it could be a common mistake ...
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Brown (1956) Composition of Scientific Words makes no reference to
>>>> >> anyadjectival advenus ...
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Stephen
>>>> >>
>>>> >>  *From:* Michael Heads <m.j.heads at gmail.com>
>>>> >> *To:* Curtis Clark <lists at curtisclark.org>
>>>> >> *Cc:* Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
>>>> >> *Sent:* Thursday, 2 August 2012 2:46 PM
>>>> >> *Subject:* Re: [Taxacom] a question of Latin ...
>>>> >>
>>>> >> 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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>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> --
>>>> >> Wellington, New Zealand.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> My new book: *Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University
>>>> >> of California Press, Berkeley.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>>> >>
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>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > Wellington, New Zealand.
>>>> >
>>>> > My new book: *Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University
>>>> > of California Press, Berkeley.
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> >
>>>> > Taxacom Mailing List
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Wellington, New Zealand.
>>>
>>> My new book: Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. University
>>> of California Press, Berkeley.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
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>
>