[Taxacom] Bacterial families ending in -ataceae

[Curtis Clark]

On 2012-10-21 5:56 PM, Ken Kinman wrote:
> I was looking more closely at some of the bacterial families ending in -ataceae.   Thermoplasmataceae and Mycoplasmataceae have type genera (Thermoplasma and Mycoplasma) in which both the prefix and the stem are Greek in origin.
>         However, family Ferroplasmaceae (not Ferroplasmataceae) has a type genus (Ferroplasma) in which the prefix (Ferro-) is Latin, but the stem is Greek (-plasma).  So perhaps when the genus name is a mixture of Latin and Greek, the authors of the family name can go either way.  Or does having a Latin prefix make it Latin instead of Greek?

If it were an ICN name, it would be correctable. Although us old-time 
pedants think it's gauche to combine Latin and Greek roots, it doesn't 
change the genitive singular.

Ferroplasma in fact combines as if both parts were Greek; I believe the 
Latin form would be Ferriplasma (another reason not to combine roots, 
since either form is equally "correct", forcing one to look up the 
original spelling (again under ICN; the bacteriological code might 
specify differently).

-- 
Curtis Clark        http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4140
Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768