User:Pengo/Women honoured in scientific names

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Mary Kingsley, scientific writer and explorer.
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Only around 15 out of 677 taxonomic eponyms in Wiktionary are named for women (2.1%, as of March 2015). And even of those 15, five are mythological figures. The gender imbalance reflects a wider pattern of systemic bias in taxonomy, especially as seen historically.

Enough statistical/sociopolitical analysis. Let's create some entries for women—especially naturalist and biologist—honoured in the scientific name of species. Wiktionary doesn't include much in the way of biographies or entries for individuals, so the scope for adding female scientists is largely limited to those found in scientific names.

Candidate entries

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Epithets

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Latin epithets ending in -ae are often the ones named for women. For example, the explorer and scientific writer Mary Henrietta Kingsley is Latinized to "kingsleyae", which is found in several binomial names of animals she first collected specimens of such as the fish species Chromidotilapia kingsleyae. While "kingsleyae" was the first "-ae" entry I found to be missing on Wiktionary, there are a bunch more listed here waiting to be created, and plenty more to be found.

Candidates for new entries
  • emilyae — Argenthina emilyae: Etymology. Species named after Emily Vokes, formerly of Tulane University, in honor of her systematic work on the Muricidae. Vokes also collected the type material. [1]
  • emilyae — Psolidium emilyae Etymology. Named for Emily Whitfield (Marine Research Group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria) who first noticed the distinctive cross ossicles in the sole of this species, and in appreciation of her research assistance in Museum Victoria.
  • furbishiae — Pedicularis furbishiae and Aster rordifolius L., var. furbishiae: Named for North American botanist Kate Furbish
  • ? fradiae — Streptomyces fradiae, "named for a person, Fradia" / of Fradia, a patronymic
  • coignetiae — Vitis coignetiae, named for Madame Coignet
  • gouldiae — Lady Gouldian finches, these little birds were named for Elizabeth Gould, the wife of explorer John Gould
  • danfordiae — Iris danfordiae -- named for Mrs C.G. Danford, 19th-century traveler
  • mosseae — Glomus mosseae, named for Barbara Mosse, author of [2]
  • clemenciae — Lampornis clemenciae. clemenciae: named for the wife of René Primevère Lesson
  • thomsoniae — Clerodendrum thomsoniae - named for the wife of Reverend William Cooper Thomson
  • briggsae — Margaret Briggs (see w:Caenorhabditis briggsae#History)
  • walkleyae — Brachycyrtus walkleyae - named for Luella Walkley
  • mackliniae — w:Lilium mackliniae, for Jean Macklin (details on Wikipedia)
  • steinbergae — Corambe steinbergae, "This species was named after Joan Steinberg, by her friend James Lance"
  • penelope — Stegocephalexia penelope P. G. Moore, 1992 (ocr: StegocephMexia penelope) -- "Etymology. Named for my daughter, Penelope Moore."
  • patae — Periclimenes patae, "Etymology.— The species is named for Patricia (Pat) Bubucis in recognition of her many contributions to our studies on the fauna of the Turks and Caicos Islands." [ocr]
  • pettiboneae — Branchipolynoe pettiboneae, "ThQ species is named in honor of Dr. Marian H. Pettibone of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in our deep respect for her excellent papers on the family Polynoidae." [ocr]
  • zimmermanae — Eleutherodactylus zimmermanae. "Etymology.— Named for Barbara Zimmerman in recognition of her contributions toward an understanding of Amazonian frogs." [ocr]
  • ostoyae — Armillaria ostoyae -- ?
  • waldronae — Piliocolobus waldronae, Miss Waldron's red colobus
  • margaretae — Prof. Margaret G Bradbury (she); possibly others too
  • helenae — maybe? (Helen's)
  • idae — maybe? (Ida's)
  • mariae — maybe? (Mary's)
  • johnsoniae — Flavobacterium johnsoniae named for Delia E. Johnson
Already checked / not in scope

Genera

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A genus does not have a different ending whether it is named for a male or a female human. The feminine ending -ia is generally applied to either. So finding women honoured in genus names is more difficult.

Examples:

Existing and now created entries

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Candidates for Wikipedia articles

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This work may also help identify notable women who require biographies on Wikipedia. For example, whitefly expert Florence Eugenie Bemis, who gives her name to the whitefly genus Bemisia. In 1904 she published a monograph on whiteflies of California in which she described 15 species new to science. She has no Wikipedia entry as yet.

Wikidata

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  1. Check if there is a Wikidata item on the person
    1. If not create one
  2. Check if there is a Wikidata item on the taxon
    1. If not create one
  3. Add a property to the taxon-item, using P138 ("named after"), like this.
  4. Check if there is a Wikidata item on the patronym
    1. If not create one, e.g. wikidata:Q23931078.

Wikispecies

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  1. Check if there is a Wikispecies page on the person
    1. If not create one (e.g. species:Evelyn Cheesman)
  2. Check if there is a Wikispecies page on the taxon
    1. If not create one

Finding more

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I have created a list to help find eponymous epithets which honour women naturalists, scientists, and discoverers of new species. It may also include figures from history and mythology, names in honour of family or loved ones, celebrities, patrons, benefactors, etc. Women are also honoured in genera names, usually ending in -ia, however both male and female names are Latinized this way, so it's more difficult to find candidates.

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Resources

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