Finding the etymology of scientific names can sometimes be challenging, here are a few tricks I've gathered to help:
- Understanding and Learning Scientific Names of Species by professors for the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning, explains some of the reasons etymology is important. The page also lists a few books that might be useful.
Online edit
- Google (try for example Chrysiridia + latin), Google Books and Google Scholar sometimes have the answer
- Online Latin-English dictionaries (but rarely successful).
- Wiktionary sometimes works, if it does you often should link the word using the proper InterWikimedia link: [[wikt:]]
- User:Pengo/Latin subpage
- Dictionary of Botanical epithets
- The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia available online
Books edit
- Stern, William (2005). Plant Names Explained: Botanical Terms and Their Meaning. Horticulture Books. ISBN 1558707476.
- Stearn, William T. (2004). Botanical Latin. Timber Press. ISBN 0881926272.
- Brown, Roland Wilbur (2000). Composition of Scientific Words. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 1560988487.
- Borror, Donald J. (1988). Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. Mayfield Publishing Company. ISBN 0874840538. [1]
(See User_talk:Pengo/archive_4#Latin_name for attribution)