> I have to go off for the rest of the day, but here's an interesting
> exercise.....What is the longest (most letters) of a latin name (MOLLUSCA
> ONLY), genus and species only for right now?  I don't know the answer.
> Just curious what we will propose...


I haven't even tried to find the longest name in Mollusca, but I did just
complete an article for an upcoming newsletter and I found the longest
binomial name of any critter: Gammaracanthuskytodermogammarus
loricatobaicalensis, Dybowski 1926 (amphipod).  And please, don't just look
at it, make sure you try and pronounce it out loud.  It is an entire
sentence's worth of syllables.  Not really difficult,  just time consuming.

Oh, and sense I know you are asking yourself, "What is the shortest name?"
Here it is:  The shortest binomial: Ia io, Thomas 1902 (Chinese bat), also
an all-vowel binomial.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA