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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
Linnaean names - origin and pronunciation
 
Linnaeus devised a system of binomial nomenclature whereby every living organism is designated an internationally recognised scientific name. He chose to use 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.
 
The Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina

Should the species name be pronounced as "loo-see-ner", "loo-sin-er", or "loo-keener" ?
 
Another problem with Latin names is that very few people know how to pronounce the words correctly. I have for example heard the Linnaean name of the Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina pronounced variously as "loo-see-ner", "loo-sin-er", and "loo-keener".
 
Guide to the pronunciation of the Latin alphabet
 

a

as in CAT

e

as in HAY

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 HAY

ao

as in CHAOS

au

OW as in COW

ea

A-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

OY as in TOY

c

hard like a K

ch

hard like a K

g

as in LEG

h

as in HELL

j

Y, thus jatrophae is pronounced YAT-ROFF-EYE

th

as in THYME, NOT as in THE

v

as in LEVER

y

as in MYTH
 
An exception to the above occurs when the species is named after a person, as in the case of the Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae, which is pronounced "Jacob-eye-er", not "yak-ob-eye-er". Similarly the neotropical moth genus Rothschildia is pronounced "Rothschild-ear", not "rots-kill-dee-er".
 
The origin of Latin names
 
Many species are named after characters in Greek or Roman mythology, as indicated in the table below. These also inherit the original pronunciation. So getting back to our original case, the specific name of the Duke of Burgundy, lucina, is a Roman word, the butterfly being named after the Roman goddess of childbirth "Lucina", which is pronounced "loo-sign-er".
 
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

Inachus, 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.
Sometimes taxonomists seem to be a little lacking in imagination however, Westwood for example in the 19th century specialised in creating genera with names that were nothing more than anagrams of existing names. Thus 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 metalmarks from Colombia, 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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