Disputatio:Dionaea muscipula

Isnt it "Dionaea muscicipula"? muscipula means mouse trap but botanically it was a translation mistake, so the articel's name should be Dionaea muscicipule. --84.60.110.131, usor sine nomine

Ubi est error? et quid significat muscicipule ? Vide en:Dionaea muscipula. IacobusAmor 18:35, 2 Martii 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's no error, I think. The Latin word is muscipula according to Lewis & Short: I haven't seen any evidence for muscicipula.

Ah, I see what you mean now: you want a word meaning fly-trap. Well, no original research on Vicipaedia, so you will first have to find a published source that says Solander made an error. It seems likely to me he knew what he was doing and meant to choose muscipula; but it would be nice to be proved wrong. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 19:50, 2 Martii 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It shouldn't matter, because the operative principle is that the first legitimately (i.e., in Latin) published name of a taxon has priority, both literally and figuratively. That's why, for example, we're stuck with the curiosity that the genus Crocodylus is in the order Crocodilia: "The group is often spelled 'Crocodylia' for consistency with the genus Crocodylus (Laurenti, 1768). However, Richard Owen used the -i- spelling when he published the name in 1842, so it is generally preferred in the scientific literature" (en:Crocodilia). I've read of other names, too, which everyone agrees to be examples of Bad Latin or otherwise misnomers, but which take pride of place because they're the first legitimately published names. ¶ In any case, how does our anonymous writer know that Solander wasn't trying to say 'mousetrap'? IacobusAmor 20:21, 2 Martii 2011 (UTC)[reply]