Ameiurus melas
- noun
- /ˌeɪmiˈjʊrəs ˈmɛləs/
- Specialized
- The Ameiurus melas is often found in muddy rivers and lakes throughout the eastern United States.
Examples
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The diet of Ameiurus melas consists mainly of aquatic insects, small fish, and plant material.
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Fishermen sometimes mistake the Ameiurus melas for other species of bullhead catfish.
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The Ameiurus melas is often found in ponds and slow-moving rivers.
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Have you ever caught an Ameiurus melas while fishing?
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Fishermen sometimes mistake the Ameiurus melas for other species of bullhead catfish.
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The Ameiurus melas is often found in muddy rivers and lakes throughout the eastern United States.
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The diet of Ameiurus melas consists mainly of aquatic insects, small fish, and plant material.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Ameiurus + melas
This is a Latin binomial (taxonomic) name rather than a compositional English phrase; its meaning as the common name "black bullhead" is a label from biological nomenclature, not a predictable combination of everyday English words. A B1 learner who knows 'Ameiurus' only as a genus and who does not recognize the classical epithet 'melas' (not a standard English word) would not be able to derive the species' common-name meaning, so the expression is opaque.
Etymology
Ameiurus melas is the scientific name for a kind of bullhead catfish. The second word, melas, is an old Greek word meaning 'black', and the first word, Ameiurus, is the group name for bullhead catfish, so the name points to the 'black bullhead'.