Specific Name (zoology) - The Grammar of Species Names

The Grammar of Species Names

Grammatically, a binomen (and a trinomen, also) must be treated as if it were a Latin phrase, no matter which language the words were originally taken from. (This gives some justification to the popular usage of the phrase "Latin name" instead of the more correct phrase "scientific name".) Grammatically (using Latin grammar), the specific name must adhere to certain conventions. The specific name can either be formed as:

• A noun in apposition to the genus name, for example, the scientific name of the lion, Panthera leo. In these cases, the word for the genus and the word for the species do not necessarily have to agree in gender. Species names which are nouns in apposition are sometimes the vernacular name of the organism in Latin or Ancient Greek, or the name (specific or generic) of another organism which the organism itself resembles.

• A noun in the genitive case (i.e. belonging to).
  • This is common in parasites: Xenos vesparum ("Xenos of the wasps").
  • Proper nouns which are names of people and places are often used in the genitive case. For example the name of the coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae which means "Latimeria of Chalumna", is a reference to the area near the mouth of the Chalumna River in the Indian Ocean, where the coelacanth was first found, i.e. its type locality.

• An adjective which must agree in case and gender with the genus: Felis silvestris ("the forest cat")