Flies [was RE: Comments on existing entries]

Ross Clark (FOA LING) r.clark at auckland.ac.nz
Thu Sep 20 17:02:24 EST 2001


It would be helpful to indicate the scientific names of flora and fauna when
these are not obvious.  For example:

2) blu lang
This is currently listed as "blow fly".  It was originally listed in Mihalic
as "March fly".

Blow flies are in the Bibionidae family (Powell & Hogue, 1979: 170). 

Should be "March flies". According to OED Online, they are Bibionidae in US
usage, and Tabanidae in Australia.  
 
  Blowflies are in the Sarcophagidae family (Powell & Hogue, 1979: 73).


In Bislama, blulang is a blowfly (Crowley, 1995).
 
The Bislama word is "bluflae" not "blulang". I checked on this because, in
general, the words of Austronesian origin in the Bislama and Tok Pisin
lexicons show very little overlap. 
 
Ross Clark
 
     The usage below (from Wantok) also indicates blowfly (which are
carnivorous) rather than March fly (which are not).  Can anyone confirm that
blu lang does not mean blow fly, or was this omission unintentional?


Dispela pik em dok wantaim anis na blulang i bin kilim.
The dog, the ant and the blowfly had killed this pig.



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