Small Shelly Fauna

The Nine Billion Names of God

Taxonomy: my hobby as well as my profession. That is, I enjoy delving into the history and vagaries of biological nomenclature even when it has nothing to do with my stated research. Yeah, it's sad, I know. I'm especially fond of finding scientific names that incorporate another fave rave of mine, mythology. To that end, some time ago I tried to put together a complete listing of animals with mythological names. Limited attempts at this have already been done (see Mark Isaak's page Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature for some examples, as well as a great listing of "funny" and unusual names), but I wanted to be comprehensive. However, untold thousands of binomena are in some way derived from myth, so I had to impose some limiting factors even while claiming comprehensiveness. First, I was only looking at genera. As awesome as Alabagrus coatlicue, A. ixtilton, A. mixcoatl, and A. xolotl (braconid wasps named for Aztec deities) are, there are just too many species to list. Second, the genera had to be "straight-up" versions of the names. That is, no prefixes or suffixes added, and no Latinization of non-Classical names. This means I couldn't include such great names as Quetzalcoatlus (a truly enormous pterosaur named after the feathered serpent god of the Aztecs), Morlockia (a cave-dwelling crustacean named after the subterranean subhumans in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine), Tupilakosaurus (a fossil amphibian named after an Inuit water spirit), or Sauroposeidon (a gigantic sauropod dinosaur named after Poseidon in his guise as God of Earthquakes). I worked on this Nomenclator Mythologicus for some time, eventually rounding up 401 genera (mostly of Greek origin, but representation from across the globe.) I have since stopped work on this project, as I now have more practical ends to my obsessive taxonomic compilations, but today I thought I'd share some of the gems gleaned from my mythical taxon mines.

Ancient Gods: Where Are They Now?
Gods whose last worshippers (well, except for the occasional New Age lunatics) died out thousands of years ago gain new life in the scientific literature as animal names. But how have they fared in the transition from omnipotent deities to lil' critters? Let's see...
Zeus Linnaeus, 1758: a stately fish, type genus of the entire order Zeiformes. All in all, lookin' pretty good, big guy.
Artemis Kirby & Spence, 1828: the luna moth. A more graceful and appropriate avatar for a Moon Goddess there never was (unfortunately now considered synonymous with Actias Leach, 1815).
Athene Boie, 1822: an owl, no surprises here.
Aphrodite Leske, 1775: once Goddess of Beauty, now a gray, hairy, scum-sucking sea worm. Ooooh, that's gotta sting.

An Around-the-World Sampler
Greek: Hades Westwood, 1851 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae): butterfly
Roman: Pluto Pate, 1937 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Hymenoptera, Sphecidae): sphecid wasp
Norse: Thor Kingsley, 1878 (Arthropoda, Crustacea, Decapoda, Hippolytidae): caridean shrimp
Finnish: Sampo Öpik, 1933 (Brachiopoda, Articulata, Orthida, Leptellinidae): articulate brachiopod
Celtic: Setanta Cameron, 1901 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae): ichneumon wasp
Jewish: Golem Whitley, 1957 (=?Histiophryne Gill, 1863) (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Lophiiformes, Antennariidae): frogfish
Egyptian: Thoth Linnavuori, 1993 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Hemiptera, Miridae): plant bug
African: Xevioso Lehtinen, 1967 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Amaurobiidae): amaurobiid spider
Hindu: Kali Lloyd, 1909 (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Perciformes, Chiasmodontidae): swallower fish
Buddhist: Tara Peckham & Peckham, 1886 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae): jumping spider
Persian: Rustem Kormilev, 1957 (=Scironocoris Kormilev, 1957) (Arthropoda, Insecta, Hemiptera, Aradidae): flatbug
Babylonian: Zu Walters & Fitch, 1960 (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Lampridiformes, Trachipteridae): ribbonfish
Japanese: Izanami Galil & Clark, 1994 (Arthropoda, Crustacea, Decapoda, Calappidae): matutine crab
North American Native: Coyote Reeder & Roth, 1988 (=Helminthoglypta Ancey, 1887) (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Helminthoglyptidae): shoulderband snail
Aztec: Tlaloc Alvarez & Carranza, 1951 (=Profundulus Hubbs, 1924) (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Cyprinodontiformes, Profundulidae): Middle American killifish
Australian: Yurlunggur Scanlon, 1992 (Chordata, Reptilia, Squamata, Madtsoiidae): python
Oceanic: Tangaroa Lehtinen, 1967 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Uloboridae): uloborid spider

Well-read Taxonomists
In addition to the genera derived from mythology, I also took note of those taken from literary sources. Some of these are the names of real people, authors and philosophers (e.g. Crito Distant, 1916, a leafhopper, Plato Coddington, 1986, a spider, and Sappho Reichenbach, 1849, a hummingbird), but others are purely fictional characters. Here are a few of my favorites:
Cervantes: Esperanza Barber, 1906 (Arthropoda, Insecta, Hemiptera, Alydidae): broad-headed bug
Kipling: Bagheera Peckham & Peckham, 1896 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae): jumping spider
Rabelais: Gargantua Jullien, 1888 (Bryozoa, Gymnolaemata, Cheilostomata, Microporidae): bryozoan
Shakespeare: Iago Compagno & Springer, 1971 (Chordata, Chondrichthyes, Carcharhiniformes, Triakidae): dogfish
Swift: Laputa Whitley, 1930 (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Tetraodontiformes, Monacanthidae): leatherjacket (the name Laputa was also used by Dyke, 2001 for a fossil swift [a bird noted for its perpetual flight], a much more appropriate usage than the fish, but Whitley's name has priority. The bird was renamed Laputavis).
Swift: Lilliput Wesolowska & Russel-Smith, 2000 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Salticidae): jumping spider

In a 2002 paper on ichneumonid wasp taxonomy, Karen Sime and David Wahl really went all-out with wacky and literary names. Ichneumonids are parasitoid wasps, meaning that they lay their eggs in living creatures. The young then hatch out, and devour the host (usually caterpillars) from the inside. The eggs are inserted in the host through an elongate, pointed ovipositor--in essence, the mother wasp "harpoons" her victims. With that in mind, Sime and Wahl erected the following new genera: Daggoo, Queequeg, and Tashtego. They create other novel genera (pardon the pun) along similar lines. Nabokov was famously an amateur entomologist as well as an author, and has a number of insect species named after him. Rarely have his characters have been so honored, but in the aforementioned paper, Sime and Wahl also named Humbert humberti. In case you were wondering, yes, it prefers puncturing larvae rather than adults. Other names from this paper: Mokajoppa (yuk yuk yuk), Metallichneumon neurospatarchus ("neurospatarchus" translates as master of puppets, from there the generic etymology should be obvious), and also in a musical vein, Xanthosomnium froesei ("The genus is named after the musical group Tangerine Dream, the choice of discriminating ichneumonologists." The species is "Named after Edgar Froese, the founder and continuity behind Tangerine Dream.")

Scientists being nerds, it should not be surprising that Tolkien takes the taco for inspiring the most scientific names. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of names like Frodospira, Mimatuta morgoth, or Osteoborus orc. I've found the following that conform to my specifications for making the Nomenclator Mythologicus (most of these were named by University of Chicago professor and legendary Tolkien fan Leigh Van Valen):
Ancalagon Conway Morris, 1977 (Cephalorhyncha, Priapulida, Ancalagonidae): priapulid worm (Van Valen also used the name Ancalagon for a carnivorous mammal, which had to be renamed Ankalagon)
Beorn Cooper, 1964 (Tardigrada, Eutardigrada, Parachela, Hypsibiidae): tardigrade (tardigrades are commonly called "water bears", hence the name)
Earendil Van Valen, 1978 (=Mimatuta Van Valen, 1978) (Chordata, Mammalia, Condylarthra, Periptychidae): condylarth
Fimbrethil Van Valen, 1978 (=Oxyacodon Osborn & Earle, 1895) (Chordata, Mammalia, Condylarthra, Periptychidae): condylarth
Gollum Compagno, 1973 (Chordata, Chondrichthyes, Carcharhiniformes, Proscyllidae): catshark
Mithrandir Van Valen, 1978 (Chordata, Mammalia, Condylarthra, Periptychidae): condylarth
Niphredil Van Valen, 1978 (=Palaeosinopa Matthew, 1901) (Chordata, Mammalia, Cimolesta, Pantolestidae): pantolestid
Sauron Eskov in Eskov & Marusik, 1994 (Arthropoda, Arachnida, Araneae, Linyphiidae): sheetweb spider
Smeagol Climo, 1980 (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Basommatophora, Smeagolidae): sea slug
Thangorodrim Van Valen, 1978 (=Oxyclaenus Cope, 1884) (Chordata, Mammalia, Procreodi, Oxyclaenidae): oxyclaenid
Tinuviel Van Valen, 1978 (Chordata, Mammalia, Condylarthra, Periptychidae): condylarth

Odds and Ends: Sad, Lonely Taxonomists
Some of the generic names out there are entertaining by virtue of schadenfreude, when the taxonomist's romantic woes are expressed through their nomenclature. This practice goes way back to the early days of modern taxonomy, and Linnaeus himself has somewhat of a reputation as a "dirty old man" for his rather ribald orchid and clam names. It didn't end there: carcinologist W. E. Leach named some isopods Conilera, Rocinela, Nerocila, and Olincera after his wife Caroline, but also Cirolana, Lanocira, and Anilocra after his mistress Carolina. In 1895, mammalogist C. W. De Vis named a fossil kangaroo Procoptodon oreas. In 2004, sthenurine kangaroo revisor Gavin Prideaux speculated on the etymology for the species: "Lat. oreas, ‘mountain nymph.’ Significance of name unknown, but may pertain to a whimsical carnal fantasy inspired by the attractive preservation of the holotype." In 1904, famed hemipterologist (bug worker) G. W. Kirkaldy gave a number of bugs rather amorous appellations under a thin Latinized veneer. For example, Polychisme is pronounced "Polly kiss me." There's also Dolichisme, Florichisme, Marichisme, Nanichisme, Peggichisme, and coming right out with it, Ochisme. The all-time low from Kirkaldy's legacy came in 2002, when dipterologist Neal Evenhuis named a fossil beefly Carmenelectra shechisme. I can't believe I'm saying this, but dude, you seriously need to get out of the lab for a while. I sincerely hope that my reviewers stop me if one day, in a moment of madness, I decide to contribute to this shameful history.