bewickii

Bewickii is a Latinized specific epithet used in the scientific names of several organisms. It is not a taxon by itself but appears as the second, or specific, name in binomial nomenclature across different groups, including animals and plants.

Origin and usage: The epithet bewickii honors a person with the surname Bewick, rendered in a masculine Latin form. In zoological and botanical naming, such epithets are appended to a genus name to form a species designation. Because the same epithet can be used in multiple, unrelated taxa, bewickii does not indicate a single species or lineage; the full binomial (for example, a genus followed by bewickii) is required to identify a specific organism. The exact individual honored by a given bewickii epithet can vary and may reflect an explorer, collector, or contributor associated with the original description of that species.

Notes: As with other honorific epithets derived from surnames, regional and code-specific rules governing gender and spelling can introduce variations (for example, eyewitness spellings or feminine forms in some contexts). Therefore, bewickii alone should not be treated as a unique taxon, but rather as a common epithet used in multiple, distinct species descriptions. When identifying a species, the genus name and the full binomial are essential.

See also: Taxonomic nomenclature; species epithet; list of species named after people.