cricket phylum

[Malley]

if your entomology lecturers pronounced the p then they perhaps don't know their ancient greek so well!
the ptera part of the name refers to the wings of an insect....
for example malley, your lecturers undoubtably mentioned Diptera (the flies) who have two (di-) wings (ptera)...
perhaps they mentioned hymenoptera, membraneous (hymen-) wings (ptera)...
if you still don't believe that the p is silent, then how do you pronounce the name of these ancient reptiles, the pterasaurs? (wing lizard) or pteradactyls (wing finger)?

I'm well aware of the greek derivation of the names of each order and their meanings, but does it necessarily mean that the word for wing in greek has to be pronounced the same way when it has another derivation in front of it, as it is when it's on its own? I'm sure there are examples in the english language where words are pronounced differently when this happens.

The entomology courses that I have taken have mostly been non-contact unfortunately as there aren't enough students at my uni to hold lectures and pracs... I did however have lectures and practicals for one of my subjects, and the coordinator never pronounced the p as silent. So you would pronounce the orders Psocoptera as Psoco-tera? Thysanoptera as Thysano-tera? Hymenoptera as Hymeno-tera?

I realise the two dinosaur examples are pronounced with the p as silent, can you recall any "more common" known examples where -ptera is the suffix?

 

[Malley]

If you consider www.dictionary.com a worthy reference, then it also agrees with my opinion that the "p" in each order is pronounced...

 

[jack]

well i guess its a case of you say tom ay to and i say tom ar to...
or should that be "you say ptomato and i say tomato"!!

 

[croc_hunter_penny]

ptomato :lol: i was taught the pronunciation of ptera was with a silent p

 

[Hickson]

Ptera does have a silent p, but I have never heard anyone pronounce the p as silent in any name where -ptera is a suffix. That goes for entomologists, etymologists and mammalogists.

However, Jack is quite correct in what he says.



Hix

 

[moosenoose]

heres how it works (at a highschool science level of info/interpretation):
all animals are in a Kingdom called Animalia.
This Kingdom is split into different Phyla (plural) one of which is Athropoda (which refers to jointed legs)
The Phylum Arthropoda is split into different Classes, one of which contains Insects (other classes of arthropods being those of spiders, scorpions and crabs.. all jointed legs see?)...
The Class Insecta is then divided into Orders, one of which is Orthoptera containing crickets (other orders include Lepidoptera- butterflies and Coleoptera-beetles)... and as an aside, the P in these names is silent, meaning Orthoptera is pronounced Ortho tera...
anyway, the Order Orthoptera is then split into Families...
and then Families are further split to a Genus level... and the Genus will contain individual species within it..
the Binomial name is the Genus of an organism followed by it's specific name...
so to finally answer your question, the cricket is in Phylum Arthropoda!

Very impressive Jack, although I'll need to read it through a dozen times to get the gist of it!