Talk:Aha (wasp)

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A fact from Aha (wasp) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 December 2017 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that an entomologist cried "Aha!" when he discovered a new genus of Australian wasp, and that became its name?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2017/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Aha (wasp).

Wikipedia

Science 82[edit]

There was apparently discussion of Aha in the magazine Science 82 (Seems to be ISSN 0193-4511), not to be confused with the much more well known journal Science — this took me way too long to figure out!). As far as I can tell it's around pp. 66–67 of the June issue, was accompanied by some sort of color illustration or photo, and was in a the "Crosscurrents" section. Only the similarly-titled journal seems to be online. Umimmak (talk) 04:34, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Update: Citation is

Conniff, Richard (June 1982). "The name game". Crosscurrents. Science 82. 3 (5). Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science: 66–67. ISSN 0193-4511.

Page 66 includes a color illustration of the head of A. ha by Sally Bensusen. Page 67 includes a paragraph on Aha, A. ha, and A. evansi. Article ends with the quotation: If the gods (and Evans) are kind enough to provide him with such an opportunity again, Menke now says he will name the new genus Ohno, and he will report the discovery in a paper entitled, "Ohno, another new genus of Australian Sphecidae." I didn't include this in the article because I wasn't sure if it was germane, but for posterity I thought it might be useful to quote in the talk page. Umimmak (talk) 18:33, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Possible explanation for stated etymology[edit]

This seems a bit too WP:SYNTHy so I haven't included it, but note in the 2nd ed of the ICZN Code, which would have been the current one in 1977, says on p 105 "A zoologist should not propose a name that, when spoken, suggests a bizarre, comical, or otherwise objectionable meaning" (BHL page 34413677). I suspect this is why the stated etymology is "An arbitrary combination of letters", which was permitted (BHL page 34413683). Ideally someone can find a reliable source explaining the discrepancy between the etymology stated in the paper and the etymology told later. Umimmak (talk) 03:47, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]