Posted by Stephen R on 26-12-2009 21:52
#19
After recent discussions on spelling, I have been wondering about generic names ending in
-myza. I had thought they must be derived from the Greek
muzein, to suck, and refer to the feeding habits of the flies: as Sap-sucker (
Opomyza) or Flower-sucker (
Anthomyza). Most of these names were given by Fallen (1810 and 1820). But having looked through his 1826 book on the flies of Sweden here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dQwAAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=fallen+c+f&ots=0re1htGmbz&sig=z0g5FFcbbp8hahQqdoljRm9QFm8#v=onepage&q=&f=false
I have come to the conclusion that, like
-mya,
-myza is another variant of
-myia, and it just means 'fly'. In which case those who correct
Pegomya to
Pegomyia should also correct
Geomyza to
Geomyia. And then where will it all end? For one thing,
Anthomyia and
Anthomyza will end up in the same genus:o Perhaps the taxonomy police are right after all!
My reasons are as follows:
1: The 'sucker' interpretation will not fit everywhere. Under the Family name Agromyzides (which includes
Agromyza) he says the name comes from the adults' frequenting harvested fields and he gives the Swedish equivalent of Agromyza as Akerflugor (sorry no accent!). In fact in all his Swedish names he translates
-myza as
-flugor.
2: He 'corrects' Meigen's
Callomyia (which he prints as
Callomyja) to
Callomyza. This seems to me to demonstrate that
-myza is simply Fallen's preferred spelling of
-myia, just as
-mya was R-D's.
Incidentally, no-one could accuse Fallen of being ignorant of Latin and Greek. The whole 1826 publication is written in excellent and stylish Latin, and he justifies all his derivations by quoting the correct root word in Greek.
Edited by Stephen R on 26-12-2009 22:22