"Wolfgang" wrote

one of them because I think
it's a good idea to know the name of anything that looks big enough to
hurt me,

snip
That said, I agree that there is no good practical reason to make a
fetish of learning all of the bugs' true names (and it's probably bad
juju anyway), but some of us do derive some satisfaction from that
sort of things for various more esoteric reasons.

If I tell you that the lake 2 miles from here has a Hexagenia limbata hatch
and the bass feed on the nymphs and somewhat on the duns .... does that
prepare a mid-westerner to fish that activity better than "big yellow may"

Do you have a pretty damn good idea what nymph and dun patterns would likely
work? What size "big" is? What time of day to be there? What bottom type
the bug prefers and thus can limit your search to those types?

I agree that to a large extent that the Latin is often the opposite of
valuable, since it DEcreases real communication ( and bores others and makes
one appear snobby ;-) unless both parties have real knowledge linked to
those Latin words. And I agree that a lot of the value lies simply in the
"more esoteric reasons" But, I think they is good practical reason ....
at times, anyway .... to learn more about the bugs and their names,
especially if one wants to communicate with others on the subject.

Um, I just flashed on a thought

I can barely walk many days and just had my knee "imaged." When the
radiologist sends his report to the Dr that will suggest "cut or no cut" I'd
FAR prefer that he send that report in the scientific language that he and
the doc both use exactly the same than to say " the guy's got a bum knee"
scientific accuracy in wording, and Latin namimg, has advantages G

Taxonomy is the first science and the study of most fields starts with
learning the language of that field. In my case, learning more about the
bugs, including latin names, increases my fun and enjoyment. If that isn't
the case for others than they shouldn't do so