Post Am3ppn3c8oA2PBwwO8 by Phosphorous@zirk.us
(DIR) More posts by Phosphorous@zirk.us
(DIR) Post #Am3ozetbExki2CPJ44 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T12:19:02Z
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I’m trying to understand the meaning of the velvet ant named “Myrmiloides grandiceps”myrm - this means “ant like” but also has military connotations miloides - ?? need help here grandi - big, grand, impressive ceps - to grab, related to grabbing implements (this is clearly about their impressive mandibles)So, this little cow-killer wasp has a binomial name meaning something like “ant-like something something amazing mandibles”What is the “something something”?
(DIR) Post #Am3pCP7lBqU2st6loe by srdesantis@eldritch.cafe
2024-09-16T12:21:20Z
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@futurebird one of my pet frustrations with Wikipedia is that they don’t give etymologies for binomial names. I want to know why it’s called that! What features of the animal were so distinguishing that they made up some fake Latin for it?
(DIR) Post #Am3pkNQM18hnSQ0MBU by SoftwareTheron@mas.to
2024-09-16T12:27:29Z
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@futurebird My (untutored) taxonomic-language suggests to me that that "-oid" means "similar to". So the whole thing would be "Ant-like, but with significant differences".So, "A weird soldier-ish ant, with proper boss chompers".
(DIR) Post #Am3ppn3c8oA2PBwwO8 by Phosphorous@zirk.us
2024-09-16T12:28:28Z
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@futurebird Is it "iloides" rather than "melodies"?
(DIR) Post #Am3qDPQFfO9U3LngvY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T12:32:29Z
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@Phosphorous I don’t really know. The people who name insects don’t always follow rules about Latin names — so letters can be reused and sometimes it’s just fake and “Latin sounding”
(DIR) Post #Am3qFNOiALPULu1BSq by gannet@wandering.shop
2024-09-16T12:32:43Z
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@futurebird I saw someone else’s reply about the something probably being -like, and checked my favorite online etymology dictionary. I think they’re right. Though I don’t know where the -il- part comes from in that case. Hm.https://www.etymonline.com/word/-oid
(DIR) Post #Am3qNPCtK3rGHSJmBE by JohnGritt@noauthority.social
2024-09-16T12:34:38Z
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@futurebird Why struggle?
(DIR) Post #Am3qd8UfEKP14v8EkK by Phosphorous@zirk.us
2024-09-16T12:37:21Z
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@futurebird The wikipedia page for "Olenoides" says the following:"Olenoides – from Olenus, in Greek mythology a man who, along with his wife Lethaea, was turned to stone. Olenus was used for a trilobite genus name in 1827; the suffix -oides(“resembling”) was added later."Does "Myrmiloides" maybe mean "Resembling an ant"?
(DIR) Post #Am3qgZMtlbkfIW8XiK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T12:38:05Z
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@JohnGritt hm. It also has a big head so maybe that is it— though I thought “big head” was supposed to be “cephal”
(DIR) Post #Am3qpJcvf8cb5Bnzwu by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T12:39:36Z
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@Phosphorous This is reasonable for a velvet ant as they are wasps that look like ants.
(DIR) Post #Am3tf2oJd8LdtVvQno by Phosphorous@zirk.us
2024-09-16T13:11:20Z
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@futurebird So. . . "Fake Ant Big Jaw".Sounds better in Latin. . .
(DIR) Post #Am3yOMazJfUS6XYZsW by OskarImKeller@fnordon.de
2024-09-16T14:04:18Z
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@futurebird Mixing two languages, first part Greek and second part Latin, adds extra challenge to figuring out the meaning.
(DIR) Post #Am40iSGK9nO5NabE1I by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T14:28:00Z
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@vikxin @srdesantis @futurebird from what little I know, prior to the most recent few decades, it was rare for a scientific description of a species to explain why a name was chosen.Anyway, a few (relatively rare, I think) examples of wikipedia pages which *do* explain why the name was chosen:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamisiocarishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludodactylus#Etymologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauroposeidon#Discovery
(DIR) Post #Am419Iub1uJyCMEsoS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T14:35:12Z
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@llewelly @vikxin @srdesantis I strongly suggest that those who are frustrated with the aversion “the general public” has to using binomials put a little time into explaining the meanings and lore of the names. This makes them much more memorable and justified. And when some unfortunate bug has been named something awful like “Memyself selfpromoticansensis” after some dude or his girlfriend tell us all their personal business too. it’s the least we are owed.
(DIR) Post #Am41JCOE8LFyrlohbU by Moss@beige.party
2024-09-16T14:37:00Z
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@futurebird @Phosphorous I wonder if the il was just added to make it “sound better”. Myrmiloid sounds fancier than myrmoid.
(DIR) Post #Am41KxrP7mMUNpJ2iO by diesch@loma.ml
2024-09-16T13:41:25Z
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@futurebird -ceps is from Latin, as in "biceps", the two-headed muscle. cephal- is from Greek
(DIR) Post #Am41PvMBrMOy4D4Sp6 by yonder@spacey.space
2024-09-16T13:03:10Z
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@gannet @futurebird Sometimes the -il- part is just the licensed to -il- posse in effectYou been fully captivated by that funky ant faceYour girlfriend screams when Myrmiloides in the placeHe stumbles in the room with the Chivas in his mandiblesCold chillin' in the spot where the Velvet ants standI'd have the pedal to the metal if I had a gasterI'm chillin with the workers cold coolin at the barI can drink a quart of Aphid and still stand stillWhat's the time?It's time to get -il- !
(DIR) Post #Am41fSb2YfThV8QQAS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T14:41:04Z
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@Moss @Phosphorous myrmoid sounds like some kind of insult ants would use when talking about ant mimics.
(DIR) Post #Am41pcqlI4OACKcs8e by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T14:42:53Z
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@meena @srdesantis with Chaetopterus pugaporcinus I knew what it looked like before I searched for it. lol
(DIR) Post #Am42Lm5YTdQa7LsKOW by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T14:48:42Z
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@futurebird @vikxin @srdesantis 1/noh, I agree, and I think there's been some success with this in the case of dinosaurs; practically every book on dinosaurs will tell you Triceratops means "Three-horned face", "Tyrannosaurus rex" means "Tyrant Lizard King" (ugh), and "Stegosaurus" means "Roofed lizard". But often they leave out complications;
(DIR) Post #Am44D7HAX8iV8BJ4nw by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T15:09:20Z
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@yonder @gannet OMG
(DIR) Post #Am4GByK9WuMoWlvIGm by llewelly@sauropods.win
2024-09-16T17:23:45Z
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@futurebird @vikxin @srdesantis oh, by the way, one of the few hard limits on scientific binomials is you can't name an organism after yourself, or a co-author on the description, but it's rumored there have been some people who got in before the rule, and some who named an organism after someone else who happened to share the same surname.
(DIR) Post #Am4Iz3RzSToCWb7Zp2 by australopithecus@mastodon.social
2024-09-16T17:55:04Z
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@futurebird I'm just gonna say it, man: it's probably simply wrong, cause the guy who named it failed Greek, cause that's a thing that happens a lot. It should probably have been something like "myrmekoides" (myrmex + oides), but not much to be done about it now.