this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hello. I am not an expert. But I went to read the species description from the 1800something paper. There is nothing to suggest it has a penis or some kind of reproductive organ of remarkable length. Instead, it does seem to have very long wings, and since cockroach forewings have a pennate structure, it stands to reason to think that the perpendicular venations in the wing are long, because of a combination of angle and length available. Therefore longipennis.

Now this is just guessing, so of there is someone who knows better I'd love to hear about it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Indeed, it is in reference to its long wings, not a penis. There are several other insects and birds whose scientific names include this term.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/longipennis

https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/?t=ftsa&q=longipennis

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Solid educated guess, damn!