villosa

Villosa is the feminine form of the Latin adjective villosus, meaning hair, hairy, or shaggy. In biological nomenclature, villosa is commonly used as a species epithet in binomial names to indicate that the organism possesses a hairy or tufted characteristic, such as hair on surfaces, setae, or other hairy textures.

Etymology and form: The root villosus comes from Latin, with villosa serving as the feminine form. In botanical, zoological, and mycological names, the epithet villosa is lowercase and attached to a genus name to form a species name. The masculine form is villosus and the neuter form villosum, reflecting agreement with the gender of the generic name.

Taxonomic usage: Villosa appears across a wide range of taxa, including plants, fungi, and animals. It is a descriptive epithet rather than a reference to a taxon itself, and its presence signals a notable hair-like trait observed by the describer. Because epithets are reused in many genera, a single instance of villosa does not imply a close relationship among all organisms bearing the name.

Notes: As a descriptor, villosa is one of many Latin or Greek modifiers used in taxonomic naming to communicate a phenotypic feature. When encountered in scientific literature, it is typically part of a binomial name rather than an independent entry.

See also: Taxonomic epithet, Latin in biology, Nomenclature rules.