NAMING OF THE SHREW: A CURIOUS HISTORY/ LATIN (PB)

The practice of giving Latin names to living things has been around for 200 years, but it still baffles the layman. Why on earth is the land-dwelling Eastern Mole named Scalopus aquaticus, or the Oxford Ragwort called Senecio squalidus (‘dirty old man’)? What were naturalists thinking when they called a beetle Agra katewinsletae, and a Trilobite Han solo? The Naming of the Shrew unveils these mysteries, explores their history, celebrates their hidden poetry, and reveals how naturalists sometimes get things terribly wrong.