I'm well aware of the greek derivation of the names of each order and their meanings, but does it necessarily mean that the word for wing in greek has to be pronounced the same way when it has another derivation in front of it, as it is when it's on its own? I'm sure there are examples in the english language where words are pronounced differently when this happens.if your entomology lecturers pronounced the p then they perhaps don't know their ancient greek so well!
the ptera part of the name refers to the wings of an insect....
for example malley, your lecturers undoubtably mentioned Diptera (the flies) who have two (di-) wings (ptera)...
perhaps they mentioned hymenoptera, membraneous (hymen-) wings (ptera)...
if you still don't believe that the p is silent, then how do you pronounce the name of these ancient reptiles, the pterasaurs? (wing lizard) or pteradactyls (wing finger)?
The entomology courses that I have taken have mostly been non-contact unfortunately as there aren't enough students at my uni to hold lectures and pracs... I did however have lectures and practicals for one of my subjects, and the coordinator never pronounced the p as silent. So you would pronounce the orders Psocoptera as Psoco-tera? Thysanoptera as Thysano-tera? Hymenoptera as Hymeno-tera?
I realise the two dinosaur examples are pronounced with the p as silent, can you recall any "more common" known examples where -ptera is the suffix?
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