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> hymenopterologist Had to look that one up. Wasn’t sure if it was a joke from high school or a real field. The latter, for those interested - bees, wasps, and

by aksss 5y ago

> hymenopterologist Had to look that one up. Wasn’t sure if it was a joke from high school or a real field. The latter, for those interested - bees, wasps, and such.

throwanem 5y ago
It's a specialization of entomology, yes. That said, and to the point of your initial uncertainty, there has long been question over the presence of the "hymen-" radical in the family name Hymenoptera ("-ptera" meaning "winged", cf. Orthoptera "straight-winged", Hemiptera "half-winged", Lepidoptera "jewel-winged", etc., and also eg Chiroptera "hand-winged" for bats.) It's confidently understood to derive from the name of a Greek god of marriage, as does the name of a more widely known mammalian membrane, but no one is entirely certain why that radical was used here. It was previously thought that "hymeno-" referred to the membranous nature of the hymenopteran wing, but this doesn't make much sense given that all insect wings are membranous to some extent; a name in that sense would not differentiate the family, and thus be a relatively unlikely choice even on the part of a classical taxonomist. Currently the radical is understood instead to refer to the fashion in which hymenopterans' rear wings can lock into the forewings via a series of small hooks, in order to both support the mechanics of flight and allow bees and wasps to narrowly fold their wings along their backs where they do not obstruct entry into narrow spaces such as brood burrows and nest cells. This feature, which is distinctive to hymenopterans, could very reasonably have inspired the family name Hymenoptera, meaning "married-winged".
- throwanem 5y ago
  correction: Lepidoptera is correctly "scale-winged". What I get for relying on memory rather than checking the etymology for the name of a family I rarely study...
  - aksss 5y ago
    Interesting. My roots are weak, but I saw "opt" and thought of "opto" not breaking it into ptera. Thanks for the information.

by aksss 5y ago

> hymenopterologist Had to look that one up. Wasn’t sure if it was a joke from high school or a real field. The latter, for those interested - bees, wasps, and such.

throwanem 5y ago

It's a specialization of entomology, yes. That said, and to the point of your initial uncertainty, there has long been question over the presence of the "hymen-" radical in the family name Hymenoptera ("-ptera" meaning "winged", cf. Orthoptera "straight-winged", Hemiptera "half-winged", Lepidoptera "jewel-winged", etc., and also eg Chiroptera "hand-winged" for bats.) It's confidently understood to derive from the name of a Greek god of marriage, as does the name of a more widely known mammalian membrane, but no one is entirely certain why that radical was used here. It was previously thought that "hymeno-" referred to the membranous nature of the hymenopteran wing, but this doesn't make much sense given that all insect wings are membranous to some extent; a name in that sense would not differentiate the family, and thus be a relatively unlikely choice even on the part of a classical taxonomist. Currently the radical is understood instead to refer to the fashion in which hymenopterans' rear wings can lock into the forewings via a series of small hooks, in order to both support the mechanics of flight and allow bees and wasps to narrowly fold their wings along their backs where they do not obstruct entry into narrow spaces such as brood burrows and nest cells. This feature, which is distinctive to hymenopterans, could very reasonably have inspired the family name Hymenoptera, meaning "married-winged".

throwanem 5y ago
correction: Lepidoptera is correctly "scale-winged". What I get for relying on memory rather than checking the etymology for the name of a family I rarely study...
- aksss 5y ago
  Interesting. My roots are weak, but I saw "opt" and thought of "opto" not breaking it into ptera. Thanks for the information.