What does 'macaca fascicularis' mean?

Answer 1

The phrase 'macaca fascicularis' is the scientific name. The noun 'macaca' comes from the Portuguese word 'macaco', which in turn comes from the Fiot word 'makaku'. Fiot is a language of West Africa, where 'kaku' means monkey. The adjective 'fascicularis' is Latin for a small band.

The scientific name dates back to Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles [July 6, 1781-July 5, 1826], in 1821. There's no explanation as to why Raffles chose the name that he did. But subsequent scientists assume that 'fascicularis' was chosen to highlight the monkey's color.

What the scientific name doesn't highlight is the range of common names that the monkey has. Common names include crab-eating, cynomologous and long-tailed monkey. The monkey indeed favors crabs. But dietary needs are 60-90% met by fruits and seeds. The monkey also feeds upon bark, flowers, leaves, and roots; bird chicks, bird eggs, and nesting female birds; fish, frogs, and lizards; and invertebrates and vertebrates. Additionally, the monkey raids cultivated fields of cassava, coconuts, mangoes, rubber fruit, taro plants, and young dry rice; garbage cans and pits of kitchen scraps; and graveyards of food offerings to the dead.

Neither does the scientific name highlight the medical advances in neuroscience or the technological breakthroughs in space travel for which the monkey is responsible. The name Cynomologous monkey translates as 'dog-milker'. Neither term readily clues the man in the street onto the monkey's participation in lab experiments and simulations.

But the common name long-tailed monkey easily can be explained. The monkey's tail is longer than its total body length. For example, the tail may measure 41-65 centimeters/16-26 inches. The total body length may measure 38-55 cm/15-22".

Another common name just as easily can be explained. The Indonesian name is 'kera'. The name is taken from the monkey's high-pitched alarm calls of 'krra! krra!' at the slightest hint of danger. That call may be raised in the rainforest, the forests of nipa palm and mangrove, or the disturbed habitats along the forest edges. It may be heard anywhere in the monkey's native range: the Southeast Asian mainland; the Philippines; the Nicobars; and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo.