On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 1:50 PM, John Jacobs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks to all, especially Harry.  After a little more research, I'm going to
> do a short article on this.
>
Placopecten clintonius is named for a much earlier politician of that
name, DeWitt.

There are probably some indirect presidential names in that several
localities are named for various presidents (the largest being
Washington state), and in turn species could be named for the
locations.

Of course there are plenty of mollusks named after Obama, as he was
named a few decades ago and the mollusks have been named more
recently.  I don't think any are named for him, however.  There is a
caution in the ICZN code about making names that might be too
politically charged, though I don't think there would be much trouble
about merely naming a mollusk obamai (or variations thereon-that would
be the standard proper Latin form, but you could deliberately choose
to do something else), unless you deliberately picked a etymologically
bad genus like Meretrix or Godiva or Vampyroteuthis.

--
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"

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