Herculid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of moth classified within the family Herculidae, a group of insects in the order Lepidoptera
2. An insect of the lepidopteran family Herculidae, one of the moths grouped under that taxonomic name
3. Any moth that is placed in the family Herculidae within the large order of scaled-wing insects

Etymology: Herculid is a term from astronomy, the name for a meteor shower whose radiant lies in the constellation Hercules. The shower peaks in June, and it is named after the constellation, which was itself named after the Greek hero Herakles (Latinised as Hercules). The name follows the usual pattern for meteor showers in English, where the constellation of the radiant gives its name to the stream, so the word is a descriptive coinage rather than a term with an older folk history. It is formed from "Hercules" plus the suffix "-id," which in astronomy marks a member of a meteor stream or a group of related objects. The same suffix appears in "Leonid" (from Leo) and "Perseid" (from Perseus), and these showers were named in the same spirit. Since the names were coined in the modern scientific era, not in antiquity, no ancient Greek or Roman writer used the word.