# Meaning of Latin Names for mantids?



## cloud jaguar (Oct 13, 2008)

Some of these mantids have pretty cool sounding names - other than the obvious eponymously named ones, and a couple of obvious ones, I am pretty clueless as to what the names mean - blepharo (think that means something to do with eyelids), deiphobe (godfearing?) - short of learning latin, anyone know of a site that says what the latin names mean?


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## Christian (Oct 14, 2008)

A lot have something to do with mythology or their predatory lifestyle.

_Empusa_ refers to evil creatures of the Greek mythology.

_Parablepharis, Blepharodes, Blepharopsis_ all include "Bleph", which seems to be a word for devil.

_Idolomantis (Idolum)_ and _Idolomorpha _are self-explanatory and were chosen because of the strange looking of these species.

There are a lot of such examples.

Many names were given in honor to some person, mostly "cited" are Stoll, Stal, Giglio-Tos, Roy, Beier and all the other orthopterists.

"Harpax" means predatory (also found in "harpy", an evil flying creature of Greek mythology), and is found in many Hymenopodid (this name itself is self-explanatory, meaning "lobed leg") taxa names, as _Pseudoharpax, Harpagomantis, Congoharpax, Chloroharpax_ and others. _Harpax_ itself was an old generic name in mantids, but was given up due to preoccupation by another animal taxon.

This were only some examples, the mantid names are full of such stuff.


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## idolomantis (Oct 14, 2008)

Whats the meaning of "pseudo"? i came across it many times.


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## Morpheus uk (Oct 14, 2008)

Probaly a descriing thing as u get Psuedoscorpions,

Great thread btw  

What about truncata?

Seen it as a mantis and as a pitcher plant :mellow:


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## yeatzee (Oct 14, 2008)

idolomantis said:


> Whats the meaning of "pseudo"? i came across it many times.


doesn't that mean "false"?


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## sidewinder (Oct 14, 2008)

pseudo:

1.	not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; false or spurious; sham.

2.	almost, approaching, or trying to be.


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## idolomantis (Oct 14, 2008)

sidewinder said:


> pseudo:1.	not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; false or spurious; sham.
> 
> 2.	almost, approaching, or trying to be.


so pseudocreobotra will be something like "false flower"


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## Morpheus uk (Oct 14, 2008)

Ahhhh clever work there lol

D.dessicata would be dessicated like dead :lol:


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## darkspeed (Oct 14, 2008)

The tough part is its not all latin. Some of it is greek, and some of it is made up.

like Phyllocrania... Phyllo is greek for sheet, and comonly refers to dough made into flat sheets. Crania meand head or skull, and paradoxa means puzzling or contradiction, so the person who named Phyllocrania Paradoxa was more than likely referring to the thin wrinkled crown of the mantis in question and associated it with thin wrinkly phyllo dough. This obviously puzzled him lol.

as fer the actual latin, actually dessicated means dried, such as dry leaf in the case of the mantis with the same name. The coronatus in _Hymenopus Coronatus_ means crown or crowned.


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## The_Asa (Oct 14, 2008)

A fairly large portion is Greek. Usually if it ends in us, a, or ae, it's latin.


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## sidewinder (Oct 14, 2008)

DARKSPEED said:


> The tough part is its not all latin. Some of it is greek, and some of it is made up.


Which is why they should be called "scientific names", not "Latin names".

S-


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## Frack (Oct 15, 2008)

sidewinder said:


> Which is why they should be called "scientific names", not "Latin names".S-


Actually the correct nomenclature would be "Binomial name" lol


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## sidewinder (Oct 15, 2008)

Frack said:


> Actually the correct nomenclature would be "Binomial name" lol


Actually, yes and no......

Both "scientific name" and "binomial name" are correct. But you will find that "scientific name" is used much more often even in text not intended for the layperson. Also, a "scientific name" could include subspecies which would make it a "trinomial name".

S-


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## Morpheus uk (Oct 15, 2008)

Well sea horses arent actually horses but latin rolls off the tongue a bit more


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## Orin (Oct 17, 2008)

DARKSPEED said:


> like Phyllocrania... Phyllo is greek for sheet, and comonly refers to dough made into flat sheets. Crania meand head or skull,


Actually Phyllo means leaf, so it's "leaf head". I think that's pretty descriptive for the genus.

You may find a wrong answer but your most productive way to find out a meaning is to type the word or part of the word and meaning into a search engine such as "pseudo meaning". "phyllo meaning". etc.

Pseudocreobotra means false Creobroter (the person describing it spelled the ending wrong but that's the way it stays unless revised by the original descriptor). Creobroter comes from two words meaning "flesh-eater"


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## Orin (Oct 17, 2008)

Christian said:


> and is found in many Hymenopodid (this name itself is self-explanatory, meaning "lobed leg")


 Hymen means membrane, not lobe. Hymeno is the Greek god of marriage for a specific reason so the membrane-leg of hymenopodids in a roundabout way refers to a flower petal.


Christian said:


> _Parablepharis, Blepharodes, Blepharopsis_ all include "Bleph", which seems to be a word for devil.


Blepharo comes from the Greek word Blepharon for eyelid.


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## mrblue (Oct 17, 2008)

i think phyll means leaf as opposed to sheet but its a similar idea i guess. i think phyllium is a leaf insect genus? i could be wrong but that would make more sense. also stuff with "ocell" usually has something to do with eyes, i dont know if that wa smentioned already.


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## Orin (Oct 17, 2008)

Empusa was a monster that ate travelers on the roads it inhabited. Idol doesn't refer to a 'strange look' but is a motionless figure that can't move (though it's secondarily an apparition referring to lack of movement and ability to blend in like phasmids). Harpax is a Greek word meaning "rapacious" (appetite) and is also the species name for a mantis shrimp.


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## darkspeed (Oct 17, 2008)

Lots of differences in translation also make it difficult to make sense of the scientific names. When I searched for "phyllo" on yahoo I got "greek word for sheet" and a hundred hits for phyllo dough. When I Googled "phyllo meaning" I got leaf on the first hit. Stupid yahoo!  Phyllo meaning leaf as well does make sense in regards to phyllocrania. Being that I speak spanish, it makes it a little easier to get a rough idea of what alot of the latin means, but when you throw greek in there it just messes it all up.


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## darkspeed (Oct 17, 2008)

After a little more random googling I cam upon some interesting info.

Pseudocreobotra Ocellata and Pseudocreobotra Wahlbergii are two of my favorite sp.

When looking into the meaning of ocellata, I found some more lightly contradictive explanations.

Ocellata comes from the latin ocellatus. Generally "ocellatus" means marked with spots, and is widly used in taxonomy for different animal species that are in fact spotted. However more specifically "ocellatus" is a Latin adjective meaning with little eyes, from ocellus, dimunitive of oculus, eye, and is used particularly for a handfull of animal species that have eyespots on them to scare away potential predators, such as the "Q" on P. Ocellata's wings, or the large spot on its abdomen during nymph stages.

Furthermore, when investigating the word "Wahlbergii" I found alot of animal secies containing that word as well. However what these species all have in common is being taxonomically logged by Niklas Wahlberg who currently is

Editor-in-Chief of the Entomologica Fennica Department of Zoology at Stockholm University in Sweden. I guess when you help discover a new species you get the option to slap your own name on it.


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## rayg (Oct 17, 2008)

When writing a scientific name only the Genus is capitalized while the species should be left in the lower case, and technically speaking they should be italicized or underlined because they are in a foreign language. Even if they are derived from Greek, somebody's name, or just made up they are still Latinized words. Knowing the meanings does really provide alot of insight and helps me to remember them.


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## sidewinder (Oct 19, 2008)

This link does an excellent job of explaining the proper way to use scientific names:

http://www.interaktv.com/articles/scinames.htm

Scott


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## sidewinder (Oct 19, 2008)

_Hierodula_ is derived from the Greek name for a female slave serving in a temple in the service of a deity. That fits a mantid nicely.

Scott


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## darkspeed (Oct 19, 2008)

sidewinder said:


> _Hierodula_ is derived from the Greek name for a female slave serving in a temple in the service of a deity. That fits a mantid nicely.Scott


Yep, cuz they never quit praying


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## cloud jaguar (Oct 28, 2008)

Anyone know what Gongylus Gongylodes means in Latin or Greek or whatever?


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## Orin (Oct 28, 2008)

Arkanis said:


> Anyone know what Gongylus Gongylodes means in Latin or Greek or whatever?


That's a tough one. Maybe an ancient Greek captain or a reference to the appearance of a small cabbage.


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