Linnaean names
Origin
and pronunciation
Linnaeus
devised a system of binomial nomenclature whereby every living
organism is designated an
internationally recognised scientific name. He used Latin names, to avoid the political
problems of using a "living" language.
Unfortunately the Latin and
pseudo-Latin scientific names tend to change even more frequently
than the English names, as taxonomists learn more about the
relationships between species, and are forced to rename them
accordingly.
Duke of Burgundy
Hamearis "lucina"
- is it pronounced
"loo-see-ner",
"loo-sin-er",
or "loo-keener"
?
|
Guide
to the pronunciation of the Latin alphabet |
|
a |
as in CAT |
|
e |
as in
THEY |
|
i |
EE |
|
o |
as in SPOT |
|
u |
OO, as in BOOK |
|
ae |
as the word EYE |
|
aea |
I-ER, as in LIAR |
|
ai |
AY, as in
CHAIN |
|
ao |
as in CHAOS |
|
au |
OW as in COW |
|
ea |
AY-ER, as in LAYER |
|
eu |
like the word YOU |
|
ia |
as in
VICTORIA |
|
ie |
EE-AY |
|
io |
as in KIOSK |
|
iu |
EE-OO as in the word YOLK |
|
oa |
as in OAR |
|
oe |
OY as in TOY,
thus
phoebis
is pronounced FOY-BISS |
|
oi |
OI as in
OIL |
|
c |
always pronounced hard, as in CAT |
|
ch |
hard,
as in KHAKI,
NOT
soft as in CHAIN |
|
g |
hard, as in LEG,
NOT
soft as in GEL |
|
h |
as in HELL |
|
j |
Y, thus
jatrophae
is pronounced YAT-ROFF-EYE |
|
th |
a soft T - as in THYME,
NOT
as in THE, and
NOT
as in THICK |
|
v |
as in LEVER |
|
y |
as in MYTH |
The guide above is accurate most of the time, but there are exceptions
e.g.
when the species is named after a person or place, as in the case of the
Cinnabar moth
Tyria jacobaeae,
which is named after Jacob, and pronounced "Jacob-eye-er",
not "yak-ob-eye-er". Similarly the neotropical moth genus
Rothschildia
is pronounced "Rothschild-ear",
not "rots-kill-dee-er".
Many species are named after
characters in Greek or Roman mythology. These also inherit the original pronunciation.
So getting
back to our original case, the name of the Duke of Burgundy,
lucina,
is a Roman word. The butterfly is named after the Roman goddess of childbirth Lucina, pronounced
"loo-sign-er", so that is also how the butterfly's name
is pronounced.
Often species are
named after the place where they were first discovered, thus a
butterfly from Japan might be called
japonica,
a species from Scotland might be named
scotica,
and one from Costa Rica might be called
costaricensis
( the suffix ~ensis
means "from" ).
Another common
practice is to name a species or genus after it's pattern or
colour, the South American genus
Melanis
for example refers to the black colour of the wing scales, from
the Latin melas,
meaning "black".
|
Genus / species |
phonetics |
origin |
|
aegeria |
eye-gay-ree-ah |
|
|
aethiops |
eye-tee-ops |
Ethiopian, dark in
appearance |
|
agestis |
agg-ay-stees |
|
|
aglaia |
agg-la-yer |
Aglaea, one
of the three Graces, wife of Hephaestus |
|
Apatura |
ap-at-oo-rer |
|
|
Aphantopus |
ap-ant-op-oos |
|
|
arion |
aa-rye-on |
Arion,
an ancient Greek poet |
|
athalia |
aa-tale-ear |
Athalia,
Queen of Judah |
|
brassicae |
br-ass-ik-eye |
the larval foodplant
Brassica
( cabbage ) |
|
c-album |
see, al-bom |
the C-shaped silver mark on
the underside wing |
|
cardamines |
car-dam-ee-nayz |
the larval
foodplant Cardamine pratensis
( cuckoo flower ) |
|
cardui |
card-wee |
the larval
foodplant
Carduus
( thistle ) |
|
Celastrina |
kell-ass-tree-ner |
|
|
Coenonympha |
koy-non-imp-her |
|
|
crocea |
kro-kee-er |
|
|
euphrosyne |
yew-proz-in-ee |
Euphrosyne,
the Greek goddess |
|
Hipparchia |
heep-ark-ee-er |
|
|
Inachis |
een-ak-eess |
Inachis, a
Greek king and river god |
|
jurtina |
yoor-tee-ner |
|
|
lucina |
loo-sign-er |
Lucina,
a
Roman goddess |
|
Lycaena |
lik-eye-ner |
|
|
machaon |
mak-ay-on |
Machaon,
surgeon to the Greeks in the Trojan war |
|
Melitaea |
may-leet-eye-er |
|
|
palaemon |
pal-eye-mon |
Palaemon,
a Greek sea god |
|
pamphilus |
pamp-eel-oos |
Pamphylus,
king of the Greek Pindus mountains |
|
Pieris |
pee-ay-reess |
Pieris, a
beautiful Greek slave, mistress of Menelaus |
|
Plebejus |
play-bay-oos |
|
|
tages |
tag-ayz |
|
|
Thymelicus |
tim-ay-leek-oos |
|
|
tithonus |
tit-on-oos |
Tithonus,
a mortal in Greek mythology |
|
urticae |
oort-ik-eye,
|
the larval foodplant
Urtica
( stinging nettle ) |
Discovering the origins of Latin names can be a fascinating
pastime. A few minutes using a search engine such as Google can
reveal all sorts of information :
The Common Blue butterfly, was
designated by Rottemburg in 1775 with the name
Polyommatus icarus. The first
part of the name translates roughly as "many spotted", and
refers to the distinctive pattern on the under-surface of
the wings of all butterflies in the genus
Polyommatus.
The species name
icarus refers to a character in
Greek Mythology.
According to legend, Icarus and his father Daedalus were
imprisoned in The Labyrinth with a terrible creature - the
Minotaur. In order to escape
Daedalus fashioned a
pair of wings for himself and his son, made of feathers and
wax. Before they took off from the
prison, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the
sun, as the wax would melt, nor too close to the sea, as the
wax would dampen. Overcome by the
excitement of being able to fly, Icarus
forgot his father's warning, and
came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus
then fell into the sea in the area
which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near
Icaria, an island southwest of
Samos.
Common Blue
Polyommatus icarus, male,
Ballard Down, Dorset, England
Sometimes
taxonomists seem to be a little lacking in imagination and come up
with rather less interesting names for their discoveries.
Westwood for example in the 19th century specialised in creating
genera with names that were nothing more than anagrams of existing
names. In 1851 he created a triplet of neotropical Riodinidae
genera Riodina, Rodinia
and Nirodia.
In the same year he also created the duo Cyrenia
and Necyria;
and the triplet
Themone, Monethe
and Notheme
!
While taxonomists are not usually renowned for having a great sense of
humour, they have amongst their more hilarious moments managed to provide us with a few amusing scientific names. Hence
we have a pair of neotropical metalmarks named by Hall and
Harvey in 2002 as
Charis ma
and
Charis matic
! Both have now been renamed rather less attractively as
Detritivora ma
and
Detritivora matic.
The new genus name refers to the fact that the caterpillars feed
on decaying leaves and other detritus on the forest floor.
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