Re: translations

[christian farrell kammerer <cfkammer@midway.uchicago.edu>]

On Sun, 13 Feb 2000 Angella711@cs.com wrote:

> Dan,
>     From what I can remember, some of the translations go as follows:
>         Lithoghpaga avitensis
>            Litho=picture  paga=belonging to.  avitenesis=ancient ancestor
>         Scabrotrigonia thoracica
>               Scabro=rough to the touch, small raised dots trigonia=in 
> triplicate thoracica=thorax(or on the thorax, I can't remember case endings)
>         As far as Ornithella ornithocephala, I think bird like bird head 
> (Cephala=head) 

Mollusks aren't my strong point either, but I must disagree with the
translation given above for Lithophaga avitensis. Lithos means stone or
rock, phaga means eating, and the avitensis means "from Avit" (I don't
know where Avit is, so correct me if there is more tohe location name than
just "Avit".) Lithophaga is aptly named, because it is a genus of boring
bivalves which can easily imbed themselves in stone or other hard
substrates (such as coral, I believe). 

-Christian Kammerer