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unusual facts about Species name


Species name

For example, Silene latifolia is the species name for a plant that is commonly called "white campion", and Bos primigenius is the species name for a type of cattle commonly called "zebu".


Subgenus

In zoology, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the generic name and the specific epithet: e.g. the Tiger Cowry of the Indo-Pacific, Cypraea (Cypraea) tigris Linnaeus, which belongs to the subgenus Cypraea of the genus Cypraea.


see also

Actihema jirani

The species name is derived from jirani (the Swahili word for neighbour) and refers to the similarity to Actihema hemiacta.

Actihema msituni

The species name is derived from msituni (the Swahili word for in the forest) and refers to the name of the type locality and the habitat.

Alcyone

The Belted Kingfisher's Latin species name (Megaceryle alcyon) also references her name.

Archicebus

The species name, achilles, is a reference to Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War from Greek mythology.

Blue-Spotted Grouper

Its species name comes from its resemblance to the "hundred staring eyes" of the monster Argus in Greek mythology.

Bryotropha gemella

The species name is derived from the adjective gemellus (meaning twin) and refers to the similarity to Bryotropha galbanella.

Bulwer's Pheasant

The species name bulweri is after Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer, Governor of Labuan 1871-1875, who presented the type specimen to the British Museum.

Canvasback

The species name valisineria comes from the plant Vallisneria americana, whose winter buds and rhizomes are the Canvasback's preferred food during the nonbreeding period.

Chiloe micropteron

The Genus name is derived from Chiloé Island where many of the specimens were collected, and the species name is derived from its very small fore-wings.

Cicada orni

The genus name comes directly from the Latin cicada meaning "buzzer", while the species name orni possibly comes from Fraxinus ornus (Manna Ash or South European Flowering Ash), where this cicada often lay its eggs deep in branches.

Ciliopagurus vakovako

The species name vakovako is a Marquesan word meaning striped, which is an allusion to the transverse rings on the legs.

Ctenane labuana

The species name refers to the type location, the island of Labuan.

Cyclamen coum

The species name coum more likely refers to Koa or Quwê (an ancient region in eastern Cilicia, now part of Armenia and southeastern Turkey), which is part of the species' natural range, than to the island of Kos, where the species does not grow.

Disphragis anatole

The species name is derived from Greek anatole (meaning sunrise or east) and refers to the eastern distribution of this taxon, which contrasts with its western sister species Disphragis tricolor.

Disphragis sobolis

The species name is derived from Latin soboles (meaning a shoot or twig) and refers to the distal process of the aedeagus, a feature not found in related species such as Disphragis notabilis and Disphragis normula.

Dysoxylum pettigrewianum

-- cites two previous sentences --> The species name honours William Pettigrew.

Eupholus schoenherri

The species name honours the Swedish entomologist Carl Johan Schönherr.

Fiordland brotula

The genus name means fjord fish (fiord + Greek ichthys = fish) while the species name is a references to Slartibartfast, a character from Douglas Adams' 1979 novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who was one of the designers of the supercomputer Earth, winning an award for his design of the Norwegian fjords.

Lioptilodes yungas

The species name "yungas" is derived from the region Yungas, from whence the species was collected for examination.

Little red kaluta

The species name, rosamondae, is a reference to Rosamund Clifford, the famous mistress of Henry II of England, who is said to have had red hair.

Orthocomotis similis

The species name refers to the similarity between the genitalia of the species and those of Orthocomotis phenax.

Palfuria helichrysorum

The species name is derived from the rosette bearing Asteraceae Helichrysum, which serves as a retreat for night active spiders.

Pallas's Leaf Warbler

Pallas's Leaf Warbler is named after the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas, who discovered it on the Ingoda River in Siberia in 1811; the species name proregulus derives from its similar size to the Goldcrest Regulus regulus.

Pinus greggii

The species name greggii honors Josiah Gregg (1806 – 1850), a merchant, explorer, naturalist, and author of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.

Ponerosteus

It was renamed Ponerosteus exogyrarum (species name amended) by George Olshevsky in 2000; however, the taxon is considered a nomen dubium by most, as the type material is extremely poor, being apparently an internal cast of a tibia from an animal that may or may not be a dinosaur.

Prodoxus atascosanellus

The species name refers to the type locality, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo river delta of southern Texas.

Prodoxus weethumpi

The species name is derived from wee thump of the Paiute language, meaning ancient ones, alluding to the longevity of Yucca brevifolia.

Proeulia sublentescens

The species name refers to the close relationship to Proeulia lentescens and is derived from Latin sub (meaning under).

Puijila

The genus name is an Inuktitut word for a young seal; the species name honours the English naturalist Charles Darwin.

Punctapinella paraconchitis

The species name refers to similarity with Punctapinella conchitis plus the Latin prefix para (meaning near, close).

Roscidotoga lamingtonia

The species name is derived from the type locality, Lamington National Park.

Santanachelys

The species name, S. gaffneyi was named in honor of Eugene S. Gaffney, a paleontologist who specialized in turtle phylogeny.

Sparbambus

The species name refers to the type locality, the Ulu Gombak Field Studies Centre of the University of Malaya.

Sparganothina neoamoebaea

The species name refers to the habitus similarity between this species and Sparganothina amoebaea, with the Greek prefix neos (meaning new).

Species 8472

A designation given by the Borg (the species' name referred to by Star Trek Online as the Undine, though the Hirogen refer to them as 'Fluidians'), Species 8472 has a dense genetic structure, with each cell containing more than a hundred times the genetic material of a human cell because of their triple-helix DNA structure.

Staurikosaurus

Staurikosaurus means "Southern Cross" (after the star constellation visible from the Southern Hemisphere) and "Lizard" (from the Greek work "saurus" meaning lizard), thus "Southern Cross Lizard." The species name pricei is in the honor of Colbert's fellow paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price.

Stichius

The species name is taken from Greek mythology (Στιχίος, a commander of the Athenians in the Trojan war in Homer's Iliad).

Symsagittifera roscoffensis

The species name comes from the French town where it was described, Roscoff, in Brittany.

Tasmantrix thula

The species name is derived from the Greek geographic location thule which refers to a northern land first described by Pytheas and is to signify the geographic location of this species within the

Taubateia paraiba

The species name paraiba comes from the name of the river Paraíba do Sul.

Thiania bhamoensis

The species name of this spider literally means "From Bhamo", referring to Bhamo, a city in northern Burma.

Tolmiea

The genus was named after the Scottish-Canadian botanist William Fraser Tolmie, while the species name refers to Archibald Menzies, the Scottish naturalist for the Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795).

Tyler's mouse opossum

The Latin species name refers to the habitat in which the opossum was first found, a Tyleria forest.

Urodeta faro

The species name is derived from the type locality, the floodplain of the Faro River.

Violet-headed Hummingbird

The species name is after M. Guimet who was a chemist from Lyons, France.

Yixianornis

The species name, Grabau, is named after American Paleontologist Amadeus William Grabau, who surveyed China in the early 20th Century.