[Taxacom] Dishonorable people as species names

[David Campbell]

It's not always clear that naming a species after someone is necessarily
complementary.  Even if the original intent was honorific, a change in
synonymy or a viewpoint form another language may lead to changes in
interpretation.  Naming a genus *Utterbackia *after Utterback was
presumably complementary to his work on mussels  (although naming a second
genus *Utterbackiana *made it confusing).  However, the type is a generally
accepted subjective synonym, so the most prominent species of *Utterbackia *is
now *U. imbecilis.  imbecilis* means weak in Latin, referring to the flimsy
shell, but current English specifically associates it with mental
weakness.  Likewise, Latinizing someone's name by adding -*iana *generates
a less positive-sounding specific epithet if it ends up in (or is used to
make) a masculine genus.

Several of the mythological individuals used as sources for taxonomic names
were not upstanding moral characters, either.  Linnaeus' off-color humor
led to multiple taxa where naming a species after you is highly dubious as
a compliment, e.g.* Meretrix lamarckii *(Linnaeus named *Venus meretrix*,
later split from Venus by Lamarck as *Meretrix meretrix* and Deshayes named
the new species for (or against?) Lamarck).
-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Associate Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
Box 7270
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017