Gonodactylus
Premium Member
The last thread reminded me of the difficulty we sometimes have figuring out why someone named a group or species what they did. Stomatopod is easy - Stomato = mouth, pod = foot, an animal that has appendages around its mouth.
Squilla was the Latin name for the common stomatopod in the Mediterranion, Squilla mantis. Thus Pseudosquilla is a false squilla, bathysquilla, a deep living group of stomatopods, harpiosquilla, a stomatopod with a sickle-shaped dactyl, etc.
However, the one name that was always a puzzle to me was Gonodactylus, the genus that I have studied most. The translation seemed obvious: gono = sex; dactylus = finger. For obvious reasons, I had always assumed that the name had to do with the single projection of the dactyl of the raptorial appendage. This is opposed to most stomatopods which have a barbed dactyl. Wrong! The group was named 175 years ago. In Greek, Gono means sex organ or seed, but it can also mean "knee". The group was named "Kneed finger" because of the large knob (knee) at the base of the dactyl used for smashing.
To all those people I told that Gonodactylus was flipping them the bird when it threaten, I'm sorry. It was all Greek to me.
Roy
Squilla was the Latin name for the common stomatopod in the Mediterranion, Squilla mantis. Thus Pseudosquilla is a false squilla, bathysquilla, a deep living group of stomatopods, harpiosquilla, a stomatopod with a sickle-shaped dactyl, etc.
However, the one name that was always a puzzle to me was Gonodactylus, the genus that I have studied most. The translation seemed obvious: gono = sex; dactylus = finger. For obvious reasons, I had always assumed that the name had to do with the single projection of the dactyl of the raptorial appendage. This is opposed to most stomatopods which have a barbed dactyl. Wrong! The group was named 175 years ago. In Greek, Gono means sex organ or seed, but it can also mean "knee". The group was named "Kneed finger" because of the large knob (knee) at the base of the dactyl used for smashing.
To all those people I told that Gonodactylus was flipping them the bird when it threaten, I'm sorry. It was all Greek to me.
Roy