Dear Art,
 
| Well, sure. But the modifiers are not always nouns. Rare-formed
| is adjectival to Epitonium.
 
Epithets are adjectives that specify a quality of a noun. An
adjective can be a noun, but can be also words like "high" or "fat",
which are not nouns. Combinations of words can be also epithets:
e.g., "long-legged", "long-spined" (longispinus), "with a spiny hand"
(spinimanus), etc.
 
| I'm not sure that Queen Conch does not use "Queen" as an adjective
| describing the conch.
 
"Queen" specifies the special kind of "Conch" that this snail is. I
think we are talking about the same thing, here. It is the same as
Prarie Dog, Sea Turtle, or Sword Fish.
 
|"Common" I can accept. But what may
| appear to be "simple" to some, may be a bit more complicated to
| others.
 
I guess the problem is here.
Just think on the possibility that adjectives or epithets in general
can be written _after_ the noun instead of _before_ the noun.
 
Take for example Sea Turtle. This means "Turtle of the Sea". Now,
assume that this is the scientific name of the animal and it is
written in Latin. Just imagine that the only way you have to write
this name is switching the relative position of its words. Then, you
get "Turtle Sea". Well, this is just the way of writing it, but the
meaning of these switched words is the same as in Sea Turtle.
 
Now, you can do this process backwards. When you read a species name
(Genus specific-name), try putting the specific name (the second
part) _before_ the first one (Genus), and this probably will give you
(as an English reader) a better glance on the meaning of the
construction of the name. So, just switch and translate. I understand
though, that translations can be hard, or almost impossible unless
having access to the original description (in the best of the cases)
:O)
 
Example: A very common sand dollar in the Caribbean and the Gulf of
Mexico (I am not sure it still is in the same Genus):
 
(a) Name: _Mellita quinquiesperforata_
 
(b) Switch: "quinquiesperforata Mellita"
(it is clear that this is not the correct way to write it! This is
just to carry on with the example.)
 
(c) Translate (Approx.): "5-times-perforated" Mellita
 
Does not it look like a common name?
 
This is the "simplicity" I was referring to. There are many rules you
have to follow to correctly assign a species name. Many of these
rules deal with the usage of Latin and Greek. Plus, there are plenty
of rules on many other aspects of taxonomy that we have not even
talked about. So, even if the concept of binomial species names is
simple, this does not mean that it is simple to assign species names
correctly, or in general, to be a good taxonomist.
 
Art, have a great Sunday.
 
Cheers,
 
Rob