Coreoidea Species File (Version 5.0/5.0)
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Supplementary information for


Etymology

Content:  Noun in apposition, given for Excalibur, the mythical “sword in the stone” which was first described in the epic poem Merlin (about the mythical advisor to King Arthur), written by the French poet Robert de Boron sometime between 1195–1210 (Reeve and Wright 2007) which was a reworking of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “Historia Regum Britanniae”, completed c. 1138 (Wright 1985). Within this poem is the first mention of Excalibur being the sword in the stone, which could only be removed by the true king of England. We felt that this specific epithet was fitting as this group of insects with exaggerated antennae were first described as a possible “double edged sword in evolution” as these elaborate antennae went extinct (Du et al. 2021). We felt this witty description, coupled with the insect being trapped in stone (amber) was fitting for such a long lost, and therefore mythical species.

Source of information:  Cumming & Le Tirant. 2021. Drawing the Excalibur bug from the stone: adding credibility to the double-edged sword hypothesis of coreid evolution (Hemiptera, Coreidae). ZooKeys. 1043:117–131

Date last modified:  Monday, August 14, 2023
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