Talk:Backobourkia

Etymology

There could be a paragraph on the etymology of the genus. The authors of the genus have a sense of humour! As any Australian would recognise, this is a play on a well known Australian idiom, "Back of Bourke". It’s a expression meaning very remote, beyond the limits of civilisation, far from anywhere! Bourke is a town in northwestern New South Wales, the last town of any significance for many hundreds of kilometres to the north, west and north west. And even south and east, towns are not close - at least 200km. Hence the idiom. Presumably the type location for the genus would be in remote arid Australia, though I don’t know the location. Ptilinopus (talk) 12:28, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

I'll look into it. There are all sorts of gems out there as far as naming goes. Many species of Ochyrocera are named after famous fictional spiders from the Lord of the Rings (O. ungoliant named after Ungoliant) to Harry Potter (O. aragogue named after Hagrid's pet Aragog). Angeline Jolie, Barack Obama, and Stephen Colbert all have species in Aptostichus named after them, and there plenty of one-offs named after famous musicians, like Desis bobmarleyi, Bumba lennoni, and Heteropoda davidbowie‎. My personal favorite is a genus called Palindroma, in which all the species names are palindromes. Cheers! Sesamehoneytart 13:52, 10 May 2019 (UTC)

Interesting about Aptostichus, I notice that 33 of the species were ascribed to Bond in 2012, and 3 more in 2008! Prof. Bond has been a busy guy! Might have had a field day coming up with new names, presumably of his favourite public figures! I hadn’t noticed Palindroma before. Also recent - genus type in 2015. Fun! Ptilinopus (talk) 22:02, 10 May 2019 (UTC)