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This afternoon, on a Sunday hike, I had a portentous encounter with a yellow-and-black-striped spider about the size of an infant's hand!
I was sufficiently moved to do a bit of looking around arachnology websites (to find out about the brute's toxicity for one) and finally found out that the spider was a Giant Wood Spider also known as a Golden Orb Weaving Spider.
It is common here in Japan, where they call it "O-jyorou gumo" which I'm told means, roughly: "big femme fatale".
It's Latin name is Nephila clavata. It's this last that I am unsure of. Can anyone tell me what it means?
I'm guessing that "clavata" is related to the Latin "clavate" (meaning thicker at the apex than at the base) but "Nephila"? I haven't the foggiest, unless it has something to do with "nymph" ?
Thanks.
Last edited by Homo Loquens; 10/09/2005 3:43 PM.
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By the way, this is the Nephila clavata
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Well, the ph in nephila is a tip that its roots lie in Greek and not Latin. It might be related to Gk nephos 'cloud'. I'm not really sure. (Your best bet is to look at a scientific dictionary that lists roots used in coining new species names.) The Latin verb clavo (past particple clavatum) has a secondary meaning of 'to furnish with purple stripes'. I looked at pictures and see that it is different from the garden orb weaver we have in California.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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It seems to be related to the Hebrew " Nephilim": 2 entries found for Nephilim.
Nephilim
\Neph"i*lim\, n. pl. [Heb. n[e^]ph[=i]l[=i]m.] Giants. --Gen. vi. 4. Num. xiii. 33.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Nephilim
(Gen. 6:4; Num. 13:33, R.V.), giants, the Hebrew word left untranslated by the
Revisers, the name of one of the Canaanitish tribes. The Revisers have,
however, translated the Hebrew gibborim, in Gen. 6:4, "mighty men."btw, I'm not familiar with any translation of "gibborim" that would have it "giants" and not "strong or powerful men."
Last edited by inselpeter; 10/09/2005 6:47 PM.
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Quote:
...The Latin verb clavo (past particple clavatum) has a secondary meaning of 'to furnish with purple stripes'...
I would have expected some relation to clave/key (but maybe I'm just being naive) Edit: "naïve" - right on! option-u-i and ï both work.
[aside: Is there an ASCII # or even an &# for i-with-a-dieresis for "naive"]
Last edited by wofahulicodoc; 10/09/2005 11:55 PM.
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I would have expected some relation to clave/key (but maybe I'm just being naive)
I was concentrating on the secondary meaning. Latin clavo is from clavus 'nail' as opposed to clavis 'key' (whence our clef).
For naive, I used the HTML entity iuml between an ampersand and a semi-colon, but as noticed by others in the bugs thread, something's wrong with the forum software configuration, and no diacritics or Unicode.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
[aside: Is there an ASCII # or even an &# for i-with-a-dieresis for "naive"]
Wofa, you're still on a Mac, yes? option u + i
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Or Alt-0239 (on the number pad) under Windoze: ï. Still Unicode characters beyond 255 don't seem to render, e.g., small letter e with macron ē, with breve ĕ, or with caron ě.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
Or Alt-0239 (on the number pad) under Windoze: ï. Still Unicode characters beyond 255 don't seem to render, e.g., small letter e with macron ē, with breve ĕ, or with caron ě.
Which is nothing compared to the fact that your Great Old One looks distinctly more pachydermish than cephalopodic, thanks to the avatar being squished.
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ï
That's what option-u i gives
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Which is nothing compared to the fact that your Great Old One looks distinctly more pachydermish than cephalopodic, thanks to the avatar being squished. It's 65 x 65 pixels, kept its ratio, and it's not squashed. You can find it online in many places: e.g., Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cthulu.png
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Quote:
Which is nothing compared to the fact that your Great Old One looks distinctly more pachydermish than cephalopodic, thanks to the avatar being squished.
It's 65 x 65 pixels, kept its ratio, and it's not squashed. You can find it online in many places: e.g., Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cthulu.png
OK, so it's my eyes, then.
Last edited by sjmaxq; 10/09/2005 11:18 PM.
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"The Nephila male has interesting mating manoeuvres. He presents the female with a fly wrapped in silk and while the female is feeding, he will copulate with his preoccupied mate." http://www.museums.org.za/bio/spiderweb/tetragna.htm
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Interesting. It also says that "there are usually one or two amorous males in the female's web as well" which explains something I didn't understand. When I went back with my camera to photograph her, there was another, smaller spider of the same colouration in her web, but this intruder didn't appear to be bothering her. Must have been her visiting fun boy. See MY photo of the Nephila Clavata with spouse (?) here: http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/927/dsc049516nm.jpg I also read that the Nephila Clavata has the strongest thread of all spider species, sometimes entangling small birds and bats.
Last edited by Homo Loquens; 10/10/2005 6:36 AM.
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"BTW, 'nephila" is likely the f. sing. for nephilim -- on the model of 'yeledim' (children) 'yeled' (boy) and 'yelda' (girl)" he typed into the wind.
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... 'nephila" is likely the f. sing. for nephilim -- on the model of 'yeledim' (children) 'yeled' (boy) and 'yelda' (girl)
...not to mention the more mainstream examples of seraph/seraphim and cherub/cherubim.
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I looked up niphilim (which only occurs in the plural in the OT) in Klein's etymology dictionary of Hebrew, and it's basically origin unknown. It has been suggested that it is related to a root that means 'to fall' which is probably a folk etymology.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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In The Book of J, Harold Bloom suggests that the "giants" were gods like those of Greek myth who wandered the Earth in search of sport with woman folk. If the vertical axis of Heaven and Earth applied at the time, then "fallen" would be corroborative. In fact, it is likely the ground of his surmisal; although, I don't remember him saying. (He seems to a textual oscurity that mimicks the author of J's; I haven't read enough of him to know if this is habitual, or a stylistic choice for that work). Of course, he may more likely have been working off "gibborim," or "the mighty ones."
Last edited by inselpeter; 10/10/2005 2:03 PM.
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This is all very informative, but I am still left wondering how this spider got its name. Usually Latin faunal names are descriptive of the animal they designate. Aren't they?
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It's a giant spider, ain't it? You said so yourself. And, while the word's not Latin, it is Greeked Hebrew, and was probably carried over from the Septuagint into the Latin scriptures, although it appears as a plural. A stab, admittedly, but not entirely in the dark. Lucky daddy spider, by the way, to bring a meal, and not be one. Or is that just wishful thinking?
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Welcome aBoard, Loquens. :-) At least one person thinks it's Latin: Latin is Nephila clavata (Tetragnathidae) Latin This site seems somewhat more credible. Nephila clavata (Araneae: Tetragnathidae). Korean Journal of Biological Sciences And here is something slightly closer to answering your question: You can hardly walk through a forest without noticing, or being confronted by, the big webs of Nephila clavata. The female grows several times bigger than the male as you can see the photo. The male is most likely to fall prey to the female after they have copulated. The Japanese name means a prostitute (Joro) but it is said to be a misinterpretation. The original word is supposed to be Jouro (a high-ranking woman in the harem of Tokugawa Shogun.) Whichever is plausible considering the tragic relationship between the male and female. tokyo nature (Oops--you already knew that, didn't you? My bad.)
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I respectfully submit that that is not responsive.
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Also, not all scientific names are descriptive. Some are honorary. Gary Larson, the cartoonist, had a woodlouse named after him.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Pooh-Bah
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I resubmit my last reply in its entirety.
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Usually Latin faunal names are descriptive of the animal they designate. Aren't they?
Jah, like Ursus horribilis is descriptive of the grizzly bear.
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Quote:
Also, not all scientific names are descriptive. Some are honorary. Gary Larson, the cartoonist, had a woodlouse named after him.
Species name, yes. Genus name, I dunno. Can you cite any non-descriptive genus names?
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mebbe we could ask here: ZooBank
formerly known as etaoin...
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Can you cite any non-descriptive genus names?No, I can't, but this website might help: http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/taxonomy.html
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Yup. There's a couple right in there, nuncle: Quote:
Eschscholzia Chamisso, 1820 (California poppy) Named for zoologist Johann Eschscholtz, but the 't' was omitted from the publication.
Wisteria Nuttall (woody vine) Named for Caspar Wistar, author of America's first anatomy textbook and successor of Thomas Jefferson as head of the American Philosophical Society. But Nuttall misspelled it with an "e", and the name is stuck.
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To the postmodernist, taxonomic classification is epistemologically meaningless, as Jorge Luis Borges' famous 'Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge' proves hilariously.
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That would be the selfsame Jorge Luis Borges who once said/wrote: "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." Now that is my kinda guy.
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