Popa Spurca are ugly. Apparently.

I was struck with an idea by a recent thread to translate all the latin names of mantids I knew. I tried Popa spurca crassa, and the translation was "The ugly, gross boy"

I don't think Popas are ugly!

I agree not ugly at all! Some of the coolest camo out there.

Oh, the poor things! What a terrible name!

I agree - they are definitely not ugly.

i did the same thing, translated the meaning of their names, i tried this one too but got a different definition, im not sure why.

popa came up as "she who sacrifices animals" which makes sense since mantids are carnivores lol

and spurca came up as "dirty" "foul" etc. and this ones like the one you found

although it doesnt make as much sense as the definition you found, together it would be "she who sacrifices animals dirty" which sounds a bit off.

i dont think theyre ugly either i think theyre adorable. when my friend first saw mine, he said they were pretty and said they look like the muppets character, gonzo, LOL

I just used the latin selection on Google translate. Yours is probably more accurate in translation. I think the rough translation would be "The ugly sacrificer of animals." But I could be wrong.

MantidBro said:

popa came up as "she who sacrifices animals" which makes sense since mantids are carnivores lol

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I think this makes perfect sense since mantis means soothsayer or profit and they feed on animals.

Falconerguy said:

I just used the latin selection on Google translate. Yours is probably more accurate in translation. I think the rough translation would be "The ugly sacrificer of animals." But I could be wrong.

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makes sense!

Orin said:

I think this makes perfect sense since mantis means soothsayer or profit and they feed on animals.

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true

Whoever first came up with the Latin names may not always be correct. Well, I know, "ugly" is rather subjective and an opinion shouldn't be deemed correct or incorrect. Though I personally don't agree with "ugly," the part about the soothsayer/sacrificer is pretty accurate.

Sometimes Latin names can be outright wrong. For example, the guy who first discovered a pretty rare slipper orchid species (orchid plant, of course), came up with the name Paphiopedilum micranthum. "Micranthum" means "tiny flower." Ironically, it turned out the species actually has a very big flower (4" is quite big, especially by orchid standards - many orchids have flowers the size of pinheads). But guess what? Despite the erroneous meaning of the name, the name stuck, and to this day, the plant is known as the tiny-flowered slipper orchid.

Back when I was a marine biology student I picked up this book called Latin Roots of Words, I believe that was the title, specifically for taxonomy of animals and plants, check out your local college book store.

I dug up the book I mentioned in previous post it is Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms by Donald J Borror.

Donald J Borror, Ph.D.(1907-1988) was a Professor of Zoology and Entomology at Ohio State University.