Phyciodes (names)

[Chris J. Durden]

James,
    You bring up another complication. There are several ways of naming a 
species in honor of someone.
*X. jonesi* is named after a Mr. Jones.
*X. jonesae* is named after a Ms. Jones.
*X. jonesorum* is named after the Jones brothers or Jones clan.
*X. jonesarum* is named after the Jones sisters.
*X. jonesiana* from the collection or accumulation of Mr. Jones.
*X. jonesaeana* from the collection or accumulation of Ms. Jones.
*X. jonesensis* from the place named Jones.
*X. jonesoides* like Jones.

In all these cases it does not matter what the gender of genus *X.* is. 
(Except -iana/-aeana changes to -ianus/-aeanus for a feminine genus - 
almost missed that!)
It does matter when the species epithet is an adjective because the 
adjective must take the gender of the genus/noun it describes.

Now to be difficult:
If we named a genus *Xania* we would have to state the gender in the 
original description or nobody would know what it is because this is a 
non-word as there is no X in Latin. For laffs let's call it feminine.
We could have *Xania browni* named for Mr. Brown; *Xania brownae* named for 
Ms. Brown; *Xania brownensis* named for its occurrence at Brown Mountain 
(along with the lights); *Xania brunnea* for brown in color; but *Xania 
brunneus* would be wrong. After a while you learn this and reflexively 
cringe at the errors.
Remember it is not the species name that carries the gender, but the genus. 
The species name is just a descriptor of some sort.
    Now maybe some classics expert can correct me and clarify the situation.
................Chris Durden

At 12:32 PM 4/3/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Chris J. Durden wrote:
>
> > 12 are named after people and are required to take the gender of the person
> > rather than the genus.
>
>Okay, the following is probably more suited to TAXACOM, but here is an
>example to chew on. I have tried to lay it out as clearly as possible:
>
>Point 1. Archips is a neuter generic name, as far as I can find out.
>Some influential, recent monograph and check-list authors have taken the
>masculine ending to all species names apparently thinking that Archips is
>masculine, but most of the species authors used a feminine ending in
>their descriptions.
>
>Point 2. Most Tortricid workers have a tradition of ending species names
>with -ana or -anus (similar to workers in other groups, ex. -ella). -ana/-anus
>means simply "essence of" or the "quality of".
>
>Point 3. I named a new species after Rich Goyer, a male, and from what I
>hear now, changes the specific name to masculine.
>
>Okay, considering the three points above... I named a new species Archips
>goyerana. Point 1 is satisfied as Archips is neuter to the best of my
>knowledge (but see point 3). Point 2 is satisfied to the extent of point
>1. Point 3, I reasoned, was sacrificed for the following reasons:
>
>Reason A. The species all have an -ana suffix already (except in some
>recent monographic and check-list literature).
>
>Reason B. Adding the suffix -ana or -anus renders the patronym
>non-sensical even though it was intended as a patronym (quality of Goyer,
>or essence of Goyer).
>
>Reason C. I was attempting to honor Dr. Goyer with this patronym, and
>naming it Goyer-anus did not accomplish that in my opinion and had me
>dreading common name suggestions later (more akin to a bad pun along the
>same lines as dyaria/dyarea - which I think is legend as that name does
>not appear to exist anywhere).
>
>This is why I don't care much for patronyms, but it was well deserved in
>this case (15+ years of related research dedicated to this critter).
>
>Thoughts appreciated, although the name is published now. Oh, and the
>common name is firmly established by the Entomological Society of America
>as the Baldcypress Leafroller, which is good if someone decides to change
>the ending and then has to think of a common name.
>
>Regards,
>James J. Kruse, Ph.D.



 
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