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.