Helinaia (1 Viewer)

[l_raty]

As part of an attempt to determine the correct stem of type genera of available family-group name, I came across this name, for which the etymology suggested in the Key appears entirely different from what is given in the OD:

Helinaia Audubon 1839 [OD] [The Key]
(Type genus of the group name Halinaiae Ridgway 1902 [OD].)
(10 originally included nominal species; no original type fixation; type species, by subsequent designation of Gray 1841 [here], "H. vermivora (Lath.) Aud." = Sylvia vermivora Latham 1790 [here] = Motacilla vermivora Gmelin 1789 [OD].)
(The type was regarded for a while as being Sylvia swainsonii Audubon 1834, however. Including by Ridgway 1902.)
​

Audubon says:

Name from Ἕλος, a swamp, and Ναιω, to inhabit.

 

[James Jobling]

Thank you, Laurent. Key corrected with due acknowledgement.

 

[l_raty]

Thanks James :t:
The etymology of Audubon's names is not always easy to guess, in part because he did not really follow classical rules. (I'm unclear why there is a connective -i- in the middle of Helinaia, for example; at first sight and without Audubon's explicit statement, given the genitive ἑλεος, I'd have excluded ἑλος as a source for this name.)