Dear Rick,

Dall stated in the original description, 1903, of which I only have an abstract
(Boss, K. J., J. Rosewater, and F. A. Ruhoff, 1968.  The zoological taxa of
William Healey Dall. U. S. N. M. Bull. 287: 1-427.) that this creature came
from
Drakes's Bay, California [Marin Co.; Pt. Reyes forms its NW border].  It seems
certain he was considering the type locality place in coining the binomen
Lunatia draconis.  He MAY have been punning a bit with "draconis," which means
"of the dragon" literally tranlated from the Latin.  The origin of the third
declension Latin "draco, draconis" seems to be the Greek "drakon."  "Drakon"
must not not be confused with "Draco," sometimes rendered "Dracon," the Greek
legislator celebrated for his stringency in the English word "Draconian," in
contrast to "draconic," dragon-like, derived from "drakon."

Anyway, it is also possible that Dall was trying to put a purely classical spin
on the species name.  I, for one, presumed that Sir Francis Drake (ca.
1540-1596) derived his surname from the word for male duck, "drake," which, I
find, entered the English language from German around 1250-1300 AD.  However
that word, "drake," had been in the Middle English lexicon (so to speak) since
before 900 AD, and had a totally different meaning - "dragon," apparently
coming from the Latin.

Someone once told me that many English surnames were created early in the 13th
century (Magna Carta [1215] and all that stuff), so it may be that Sir Francis
(after whom the Bay is named) had Dragon rather than Duck ancestors.  In any
event, I think it is safe to say that the snail's name refers to Sir Francis
Drake.  I believe Dall was enough of a Latinist to have meant the person rather
than the place in his name selection.

Interestingly, in its head-long mission to avoid patronymics, the benchm,ark
work, Turgeon, D. D., J. F. Quinn, Jr., A. E. Bogan, E. V. Coan, F. G.
Hochberg,
W. G. Lyons, P. M. Mikkelsen, R. J. Neves, C. F. E. Roper, G. Rosenberg, B.
Roth, A. Scheltema, F. G. Thompson, M. Vecchione, and J. D. Williams, 1998.
Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and
Canada: mollusks, 2nd edition. American Fisheries Society, Special Publication
26, Bethesda, Maryland, avoids giving this species a common name!  Tucker
Abbott
(1974. American seashells. Second edition. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York,
pp. 1-663 incl. numerous text figs. + 24 pls.) calls this taxon "Drake's
Moon-shell."

Harry


At 09:43 AM 4/7/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>
> Can anyone help me out with the etymology of DRAKE's moonsnail- E. draconis?
>
> Lewis' moonsnail, E. lewisii, was named in honor of Captain Meriwether Lewis
> of the American Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806. Specimens of
> moonsnails, now Euspira lewisii (Gould, 1847) were collected from the
mouth of
> the Columbia River. Lewis was a private secretary to American President,
> Thomas Jefferson, and was picked to lead the expedition from Philadelphia to
> the Pacific.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
> "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
>
> Thanks
> Rick Harbo
> Nanaimo, B.C. Canada
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]