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There are lots of Loricariidae genus that has the ending "ancistrus". I was wondering what all the pre-fixes (correct word?) mean... There is "Hyp" (Hypancistrus), "Bary" (Baryancistrus) and "Olig" ancistrus to mention a few...

Could anyone explain what all these words mean? And what does "Ancistrus" mean? I found this refering to the subfamily Ancistrinae in the ICOSA lecture:

"The name of the subfamily is derived from the Greek "agchistron" or "agkhistron" and essentially means "barbed hook". "

The prefix "hyp" in <i>Hypancistrus</i> refers to "hypo", the Greek word for few, because <i>Hypancistrus</i> has fewer teeth than <i>Ancistrus</i>.
Similarly, "bary" means wide (the wide head/body), and "oligo" means few (probably in reference to the number of bristles).
The name for <i>Ancistrus</i> probably refers to the bristles as well.

not answering your questions but this is very interesting for names and their origin
http://www.scotcat.com/scientific_names ... yright.htm

what about the rest? zon-, scobin- and par- and so forth...

-Klaus

Scobina (Latin)=rasp
Zona (Latin)=belt, girdle
Para (Greek)=beside, near, by