Hi Rick,

"draconis" refers to the British naval leader and privateer Sir Francis
Drake (1546-1596) who was nicknamed "El Draco" by the Spaniards. Dall stated
in his original description that he named the species in his honor.
This was likely triggered by the fact that one of the four localites
mentioned in the original description of E. draconis, and the one mentioned
first, is Drake's Bay in California. The other three were Monterey, off
Farallones Islands, and off Avalon, Catalina Island.
Drake's Bay was discovered by Sir Francis Drake on July 26, 1579  on his
voyage around the globe and was used by him to rest his crew and refit his
ship, the "Golden Hind", for more than one month. As was customary at the
time, he claimed the entire territory for the British Crown, naming it "New
Albion".
Interestingly, the label of the holotype at the Smithsonian (USNM 172859)
states "Monterey Bay"  as the type locality,while in the USNM type database
the locality is given as "Drake's Bay, California; specimen taken by the R/V
"Albatross, stn. 3125,  at 15 fathoms, 54.7 degree F"

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Michael Hollmann


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Prof. Dr. Michael Hollmann
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