The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : The secret behind names

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 11, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

The secret behind names

Homalopetra silasi, Mesonemacheilus remadevi, Homalopetra pillai ... If these names remind you of any eminent Indian scientists, you are right.

Some of the new species have been named after senior scientists, in recognition of their lifetime contributions to their respective fields.

Recently, two fish varieties were named after the fisheries scientists E.G. Silas and Remadevi. This was done by scientists of the School of Industrial Fisheries of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).

CUSAT researchers, named the few fish species, which they identified as part of National Agricultural Technology programme, after these scientists.

Why these names?

"The contributions of these scientists to fisheries science are invaluable. Hence this nomenclature," explains B. Madhusoodana Kurup, who headed the research team.

Homalopetra silasi was identified from Periyar Tiger Reserve and named after Dr. Silas who had served as director of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute and as Vice-Chancellor of Kerala Agricultural University, says K.V. Radhakrishnan, a member of the research team that made the identification.

Dr. Remadevi is one of the reputed fresh water taxonomists of the country. She is associated with the Zoological Survey of India. Some of the other scientists who had found place in the hall of fame are A.G.K. Menon, S.L. Hora, Francis Day, K.C. Jayaram and P.K. Talwar.

Other than individual names, some prefer to name new species after the type locality from where the species was first located. Thus Gara travancoria, Silurus wyanaadensis and Nemacheilus periyarensis eternalise places such as Travancore, Wayanad and Periyar in the scientific history.

Accepted practice

But the most accepted practice is to name new species with regard to their unique character. It would be the Latin name of that unique character that gets registered as the name of the species, explains Prof. Kurup.

A marine crab species which had a cross mark on its shell was named as Charabidis cruciata. If a yellow spot on the body is the highlight of the character of a species, its name is most likely to bear the name `xanthopterus,' he says.

Now, one may pause for a few moments before asking the question what is in a name.

K.S. Sudhi

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