BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BROOKLYN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Vol. XI December, 1916 No. 5 



THE PRONUNCIATION OF INSECT NAMES.* 



By a. L. Melander, Pullman, Washington 



In any assemblage of biologists one can hear a given species 

 called by a range of names, all spelled alike, that is eclipsed only 

 by the changes in the names themselves necessitated by adherence 

 to the law of priority. The tiger beetle, for example, is spoken 

 of as Cuindela,'\ Cigindela, Cicindela or Cicindela, according as 

 one is trained in Germany, France, America, or is untrained. 

 There is a right and a wrong way of doing things, as applicable 

 to the pronunciation of scientific names as elsewhere. European 

 trained entomologists are more consistent in their pronunciations 

 than the average American, undoubtedly due to the greater em- 

 phasis placed on orthography during their school career than is 

 encountered here. However, the pronunciation of foreigners, 

 though correct from their viewpoint, is not the standard in Amer- 

 ica, and this article is written to call attention to some of the 

 simpler rules governing the proper articulation of the names of 

 insects. 



According to the universally accepted rules of nomenclature the 

 names of insects are Latin in construction. Custom has decreed 

 that generic names be formed from Greek roots changed into 



* Contribution from the Zoological Laboratory of the State College of 

 Washington. Read at the summer session of the Entomological Society 

 of America at Berkeley, California, August 4, 1915. 



t In this discussion the accented syllable is marked with a grave accent 

 (') for a long vowel and with an acute accent (') for a short vowel. 

 Unaccented short vowels are indicated by a breve (") and unaccented 

 long vowels by a macron (") ; 3 indicates the sound of k and g the sound 

 of s ; a as in father. 



93 



