[Taxacom] ductus bursa or ductus bursae?

[David Redei]

Dear Soowon,

*bursa *is the nominative singular of this Latin noun ("one bursa"). In the
declension system of Latin nouns, both the nominative plural of *bursa *("one
bursa, two bursae") and genitive singular of *bursa *(of the bursa =
bursa's = bursae) are *bursae*. In the morphological term *ductus bursae*
the noun *bursa *is in genitive singular, it means "the duct of the bursa",
"the bursa's duct". "Ductus bursa" is grammatically wrong.

With best regards,

David Redei

On Tue, 20 Jul 2021 at 10:11, Soowon Cho via Taxacom <
taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:

> Dear members,
>
> I use terms like 'ductus bursae' or 'corpus bursae' to describe the female
> genitalia in Lepidoptera taxonomy. However, I am confused as the term
> ductus bursae is a plural noun while only one ductus bursa is in the female
> genitalia.
> I searched the internet and found examples such as 'ductus bursa is',
> 'ductus bursae are', and 'ductus bursae is', so I was more confused.
> Can someone please clarify this for me?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> --
> Soowon Cho
> chosoowon at gmail.com
> Dept Plant Medicine
> Chungbuk Nat'l Univ
> Cheongju, 361-763
> KOREA
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