On the way down to New Jersey, October 2005, I had a nice visit with Bonnie Caruthers in New Hampshire. Bonnie has a very interesting collection of "older" books about lepidoptera. I took notes from An Introduction to the Study of Insects by Donald J. Borror and Dwight M. Delong, 1954. Of particular interest was a section on pronunciation of scientific names.

Below is a summary of guidelines put forward by the authors.

All vowels are pronounced with the exception of dipthongs:
ae has long ee sound
oe has long ee sound
ei has long "eye" sound
au as in "August"
oi as in "oil"
eu as in "you"
ai as in "train"

I had read in another text that the 'ae" ending for family names is to receive special treatment and to be pronounced as a long a as in 'day'. Some will say sagh-ter-NYE-ih-dee; some will say sagh-ter-NYE-ih-day. I will probably say sagh-ter-NEE-ih-day.

I do not put any of this forth as gospel, and there may be other sets of rules or guidelines, but generally I will follow these notes as I enter suggested pronunciations on the species files.

The accent will be on the 1) penult (next to last) or 2) antepenult (one before next to last) syllable as per the following guidelines.

1) The accent is on the penult (next to last) syllable in the following cases: a) when the name contains only two syllables: luna = LOO-nuh b) when the penult contains a dipthong: Hemileuca = heh-mih-LOO-kuh c) when the vowel in the penult is followed by x or z: adoxa = uh-DOCKS-uh d) when the vowel for the penult is long. This depends on the language of the derivation of the word. The penult vowel is usually long in the following cases: i) words derived from the Latin past participle ending in ata, atus, atum; from the Greek, however, such vowels are short ii) Latin adjectives ending in alis: orientalis = or-ee-en-TAY-lis iii) words ending in ina: Carolina = cagh-ruh-LYE-nuh iv) words ending in ica: formica = for-MYE-kuh v) words ending in ana, anus or anum: vi) words ending in ura: Arsenura = ahr-sen-EW-ruh vii) words ending in odes: Ormiscodes = or-mis-KOH-dees viii) u is long except when followed by l ix) words ending in oma: melanoma = meh-luh-NOH-muh The vowel is usually short if followed by a double consonant. 2) In other cases the antepenult is accented. When the vowel in the penult (next to last syllable) is followed by a b, hard c (k), d, g, k, p, t, ch, ph, th and then l or r, the accent is on the antepenult (one before next to last). Geometra = gee-OH-meh-truh; Ephydra = EE-fih-druh a) The vowel of the antepenult is long in the following cases: Epeolus = eh-PEE-uh-lus; Pieris = PYE-er-ihs; Saturniidae = sagh-ter-NEE-ih-day or -dee The vowels a, e, i, o, u followed by a single consonant and two vowels are also long as in Callosamia = cahl-luh-SAY-mee-uh. b) The vowel in the antepenult is short in other cases.

Again, the pronunciations that I place at the top of each species page are merely suggestions for those who are looking for assistance.

For names directly from Greek or Roman mythology or for historical figures, I have sought the standard accepted pronunciation. For honourific names like Wolfei (to honour Wolfe) or Haxairei (to honour Haxaire) or Charlottae (to honour Charlotte), I say the person's name as it would normally be pronounced and add 'eye' for masculine names and 'ay' for feminine names. Wolfei = WOLF-eye; Haxairei = HACKS-air-eye; Charlottae = SHAR-lot-ay.