It must be spring!  I just saw my first robin of the season; the maple
trees outside are sporting myriad red buds; and the annual Conch-L salute to
porcine aeronautics is in full swing.  Those among us who have not yet had
the opportunity to endure, OOPS - enjoy! - this recurrent theme may well be
wondering what possible connection could exist between flying pigs and
crawling snails.  I myself have pondered this question at length, losing
several months of sleep in the process.  Last year about this time, I
finally decided to do some serious research, in an effort to settle once and
for all that overriding question that has vexed and befuddled humankind for
so many centuries - are flying pigs relevant to conchology?  I structured my
investigation around the hypothesis that any long-standing relationship
between gastropods and aeropigs would likely be revealed in taxonomy.  I
wasn't too optimistic because, frankly, I sided with those who doubted the
existence of the snail-snout connection.  But I decided to approach the
question scientifically, putting aside preconceived expectations and letting
the data speak for itself.  For the edification of those who may have missed
my original paper in the prestigious Journal of Molluscoporcine Symbiosis, I
re-post below a few excerpts from my original data:

     I began my exploration with the land mollusks.  Pigs, even flying ones,
are essentially terrestrial (excluding of course the subspecies marinus), so
if any relationship existed, I theorized it might be found here.  I had
hardly begun my investigation when I happened upon the little Philippine
snail Macroceras cresPIGnyi.  Interesting, I thought, but hardly conclusive!
Perhaps a fluke.  Delving further into the nomenclature of terrestrial
gastropods, I soon located Xanthomelon pachySTYlum.  Hmmmm, I pondered,
could this be a veiled reference to porcine habitat?  A brief additional
search turned up the genus HelmintHOGlypta.  I was starting to think I was
really onto something!  The clincher though, was the land snail HelicoSTYla
pitHOGaster.  Surely two obvious porcine references in a single Molluscan
name could not be mere coincidence!  Excitedly I turned my attention to the
marine mollusks.  And there they were!  Conus litHOGglyphus and Conus
ximenes maHOGani.  The gastropod genus HAMinoea and the bivalve genus CHAMa
were there, not to mention Calliostoma cunningHAMi, Cypraea HAMmondae and
Fulgoraria HAMillei.  AND Siphonaria BACONi - how could I have overlooked
such an obvious pattern?  Porcine habitat was repeatedly commemorated in
such names as STYliola and Terebra STYlata.  Latiaxis nakayaSUI provided
another invaluable clue.  But what really settled the matter for me, what
drew me over to the porcine side of the fence, what caused me to oink in
unbridled excitement, what led me to acknowledge that Art is a prophet, not
a character, was the sudden realization that many of these names were
confected by non other than SOWerby himself!  The data speaks for itself.
My case rests.