Winners and Losers-In Science, not the Superbowl!Yes the Superbowl is almost here (go PATS!) but sci

Winners and Losers-In Science, not the Superbowl!Yes the Superbowl is almost here (go PATS!) but science has its own winners and losers.  This gorgeous beetle is commonly known as the Death Watch beetle (xestobium rufovillosum) for the soft tick it gives off as it bores through dry wood searching for mates.  This sound is so quiet that it was long associated with the European tradition of the death vigil, in which people would sit up all night over a coffin and the only sounds to be heard were the soft ticks of the Deathwatch beetle.  This beetle was first described by Swedish industrialist and amateur entomologist Baron Charles De Greer, born on this day, January 30, 1720 a contemporary and rival of Linneaus. Writing in French in homage of his hero the French entomologist Reamur, De Greer used his own system of naming, often giving long descriptive names using a combination of Latin and Ancient Greek to describe the defining features, unlike Linneaus who was focused on classification more than cataloging and settled on the binomial system, still in use today. The binomial that De Greer gave to the death watch beetle is xestobium rufovillosum, from the Ancient Greek ξεστος (xestos) meaning smooth or dry and βιούν (bioun) meaning life and the Latin words rufus meaning red and villosus meaning hairy or shaggy. So which is it, De Greer?  Is the death watch beetle smooth and alive, or red and shaggy?  De Greer resisted Linneaus, continuing his eclectic naming as others were adopting the Linnean system, writing to Linneaus in a letter:  not everyone sees things in the same light, and people have the weakness of frequently being too fond of their own opinions…if here and there I am still of a different opinion, I am now, as before, asking you not to take it amissLinneaus, of course won, and his name and classification system is taught and used in schools and science around the world.  De Greer, of course lost, though he does still get credit (and the naming rights) to hundreds of the insects he described.  Oh, and GO PATS!Image of Xestobium rufovillosum courtesy Gilles San Martin, used with permission under a Creative Commons 3.0 license.  Visit his great flickr feed for more bugs!Image of the Baron Charles De Greer in the public domain.   -- source link

More pics about