Taxonomic practice, creativity, and fashion: What’s in a spider name?

Abstract

There is a secret pleasure in naming new species. Besides traditional etymologies recalling the sampling locality, habitat, or morphology of the species, etymologies may be tributes to some meaningful person (for example, the species collector, the author husband or wife, or a celebrity), pop culture references, and even exercises of enigmatography. The possibility of choosing witty or even playful names for new species departs from the otherwise impersonal and old-fashioned writing style that is common in taxonomic papers; but, how has the descriptor choice for specific etymologies changed over the 300+ years since the introduction of the Linnaean binomial system of nomenclature? Using an unprecedented dataset of 48,464 etymologies (all valid species and subspecies of spiders described between 1757 and May 2020), we tested the hypothesis that species names given by taxonomists are deeply influenced by their cultural background. In particular, we asked whether naming practices change through space (continent in which the species was found) or have changed through time (year of description). We observed spatial and temporal differences in the way taxonomists name new species. In absolute terms, etymologies referring to morphology were the most frequently used. In relative terms, however, references to morphology peaked in 1850-1900 and then began to decline, with a parallel increase in etymologies dedicated to people and geography. Currently, these are the most widely used, with ca. 38% of all etymologies of spider species described in the last ten years referring to geography, ca. 25% to people, and ca. 25% to morphology. Interestingly, there has been a dramatic increase in etymologies referring to pop culture and other cultural aspects in the last two decades, especially in Europe and the Americas. While such fashionable names often carry little or no biological information regarding the species itself, they help give visibility to the science of taxonomy, a discipline currently facing a profound crisis within academia. Taxonomy is among the most unchanged disciplines across the last centuries in terms of background, tools, rules, and writing style; but our analysis suggests that taxonomists remain deeply influenced by their living time and space.

Short and sweet: an analysis of the length of parasite species names

“…The frequency distribution of the lengths of species epithets among spiders is strikingly similar to ours, with the same shape and mode, resulting in practically the same average length. In addition, there was no temporal change in the average length of species epithets among spiders, even though the spider data set spanned more than two centuries (Mammola et al 2022), whereas ours covered just over two decades. It seems therefore that the few patterns we observed are not unique to parasite species, but may reflect broader practices in taxonomy.…”

“…The only comparable study we are aware of is an investigation of the names of over 48,000 spider species described since the middle of the 18 th century (Mammola et al 2022 ). The frequency distribution of the lengths of species epithets among spiders is strikingly similar to ours, with the same shape and mode, resulting in practically the same average length.…”

Does science drive species naming, or can species naming drive science? A perspective from plant-feeding arthropods

“…We also found a tendency, significant but weak, for names based on host plants to have become less common over time. Mammola et al (2022) found a similar but stronger effect for ecologically informative names among spiders, although Poulin et al (2022) found no such trend for parasitic worms. These patterns underscore the fundamentally creative nature of the naming act.…”

Can species naming drive scientific attention? A perspective from plant-feeding arthropods

“…Mammola et al . [5] found a similar but stronger effect for ecologically informative names among spiders, although Poulin et al . [6] found no such trend for parasitic worms.…”

“…We also found a tendency, significant but weak, for names based on host plants to have become less common over time. Mammola et al [5] found a similar but stronger effect for ecologically informative names among spiders, although Poulin et al [6] found no such trend for parasitic worms. These patterns underscore the fundamentally creative nature of the naming act.…”