|
Platypalpus longimanus
|
|
Subspecies
Original
description
Synonyms
Tachydromia
longimana Corti, 1907 (nec Strobl, 1910)
Platypalpus
longimanus (Corti, 1907) (justified
emendation)
Platypalpus
longimana (Corti, 1907)
Tachydromia
longimana Strobl, 1910 (nec Corti, 1907)
(junior homonym and synonym)
Note: the original
spelling "longimana" is an unclear form. The latin noun
meaning "hand" has the regular form of "manus,
-us" and is of female gender despite its
ending "-us". Corti used a variant form "mana"
that does not exist as a standard latin word.
Its use with the ending "-a" suggests that
Corti wanted to adjust the seemingly masculine
"manus" to the gender of the
genus name Tachydromia. This also suggests
that Corti intended to use the word as a Roman agnomen
(= sobriquet, additional descriptive name).
These agnomina are nouns, but were adjusted in
gender to the person they described (e.g.
"Julius Nigrinus", but "Julia Nigrina"). The
problem with names containing the word "manus"
is that the male-sounding "manus" is already
an immutable female form. Thus, the Latin noun
manus cannot be used as an agnomen and must
rather be used as a cognomen. These names were
additional names similar to modern surnames
and did not change their gender (e.g. Gaius
Iulius Aquila, where Gaius Iulius is the full name
and Aquila ("the eagle") is the cognomen; note
that Aquila is grammatically female, but is
not changed when used as a cognomen for a
man). Thus, the use of the form "longimana" as
an agnomen is an error in the original
description and its emendation to the correct
cognomen "longimanus" is therefore a justified
emendation. It must be stressed that the
change from "longimana" to "longimanus" is not
a gender ending change: it is the change from
an incorrect spelling to the only
grammatically correct spelling. Thus, the
corrected spelling "longimanus" is a noun in
apposition in the sense of Article 31.2.1. of
the Code and its spelling remains unchanged
irrespective of the genus name.
Identification
Distribution
Biology
This page has been updated on January 2, 2012
This site is online since May 31, 2005
Copyright © by Nikola-Michael
Prpic-Schäper. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
