What's in a name: Creatures named after Singaporean naturalists

Besides the severity implicit in the use of Latin, naming a new species can also serve a practical purpose - describing things they resemble, for instance - or be driven by emotion, such as when paying homage to a collector. The tiny Neopalpa donaldtrumpi moth with its golden "mop", for example, was named after former United States president Donald Trump.

Ahead of National Day tomorrow, The Straits Times explores some stories behind creatures found here and abroad that were named after Singapore's very own naturalists.

Endemic to Singapore, the pair of tiny armoured spiders of the same species - Singaporemma lenachanae - were named after Dr Lena Chan. They have not been seen outside the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve so far.

The rare spiders were named after the senior director of the National Parks Board's international biodiversity conservation division by arachnologists Lin Yucheng and Li Shuqiang in 2017.

The intent was to honour Dr Chan for her role in facilitating research collaboration between Singapore and academics from China.

Former NUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum director Peter Ng has a knack for naming crabs after a number of his colleagues, including fish scientist Tan Heok Hui.

The Polyonyx heok marine porcelain crab was christened as such because Dr Tan had collected it during a dive for the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey of Singapore.

The reddish-brown crustacean is uniquely found living in the tube home of a worm.

While most of the taxa named after Dr Tan fell into his net at one time or another, there is one exception: the Dendrobium heokhuii orchid that the late orchid specialist Peter O’Byrne named after him for discovering the world’s smallest fish in 2006.

On top of his spider collection, which includes more than 12,000 specimens, former diplomat Joseph Koh has no shortage of arachnids bearing his name.

For example, the Tetragnatha josephi, or mangrove long-jawed spider, was named after Mr Koh by the late Japanese arachnologist, Dr Chiyoko Okuma, in 1988.

The native species was first collected by Mr Koh in mangrove swamps in Lim Chu Kang and subsequently found also in mangroves in Malaysia and Brunei, said Mr Koh. “Dr Okuma decided to call it ‘josephi’ instead of ‘kohi’ because ‘kohi’ sounds like coffee in Japanese,” Mr Koh told The Straits Times.

The common but little known Lebinthus luae cricket found in Singapore and Indonesia is named after the former insect curator of the then-Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, Ms Lua Hui Kheng.

It was identified in 2013 by National University of Singapore (NUS) postdoctoral researcher Tan Ming Kai and Dr Tony Robillard from the French National Museum of Natural History.

They dedicated the cricket to Ms Lua as she had welcomed Dr Robillard from France to the collection, which she had tended to since the 1970s, when he first visited Singapore.

“Around the same time, she also welcomed me as a (full-time national serviceman) and taught me basic entomological skills such as specimen pinning, labelling and curation,” said Dr Tan.

The insect has since been a good study subject on human impact, said the 32-year-old, citing a recent study on how reduced activity during the circuit breaker affected the calling behaviour of different populations of this cricket species in Singapore.

Like the recently discovered moss animal species named after her, marine conservationist Ria Tan has a strong attachment to marine life, said NUS marine biologist Huang Danwei.

Moss animals are some of the most common but sometimes inconspicuous creatures that attach to underwater surfaces and fall under a group of marine life called Bryozoa.

The bryozoan Reptadeonella riatanae was named after Ms Tan for the monumental efforts she has put in for over two decades, all the time as a volunteer, to promote knowledge about marine biodiversity through her Web resource Wild Singapore and in person, said Assistant Professor Huang, one of the scientists who helped discover the species.

Noting the permanence of a scientific name, he added: “In that sense, it is an immortalisation of her name in the scientific record.

“Specifically, we wanted to acknowledge in a very real and permanent way Ria’s significant contributions to marine biodiversity and conservation in Singapore, so that her work will continue to be an inspiration to the marine community and the public at large.”