For some reason, I was recently motivated to learn more about the on-line name I've adopted. I picked it about a year ago, when I had to pick a handle for something or other, and have continued to use it. I had recently given my son some tree frogs as a gift, and had learned that their genus is called hyla, and I liked the sound of it. This is the genus for the fairly plain-colored type of tree frog (my son's are hyla arenacolor - sand-colored frog - to give a sense of them) rather than the brilliantly colored poison frogs, which are of a couple of different geni.
Anyway, what I came up with was that hyla derives from Hylas, the name of one of the travelling companions of Heracles (aka Hercules). He was renowned for his beauty, and met his end when a water nymph fell in love with him and enchanted him to stay with her.
Yet another odd bit of etymology - how did the name of this youth of unwordly beauty come to be the name given to a small frog, not at all beautiful really, although interesting to look at, and with a killer singing croak? I know that taxonomy decisions are often made by a single person (in fact, in my research I found a hyla stingii, a colombian tree frog named after the musician Sting) and the explanation may be that simple, but I found it of interest.
