origin of entomological symbol?

[Curtis Clark]

I've run into conflicting stories on a sign used by entomologists and
geneticists to refer to virgin Drosophila and other insects. I had learned
from list members some years ago that the symbol was the same as that of
the planet Mercury, which looks like the female symbol with horns--a circle
with cross below and arc above, which in ASCII would look something like:

U
O
+

only joined. A correspondent on the Unicode list has suggested instead that
the horns are actually a V, representing "virgin":

V
O
+

Thus, a virgin female.

The latter story seems more logical, with the Mercury sign being used as a
replacement in type because it was more widely available. Arguing to the
contrary, I have seen in entomological usage a symbol for hermaphrodite
consisting of a single circle combining the appendages of both the female
(Venus) signs and male (Mars) signs. In other contexts, Mercury is often
used to represent hermaphrodite, but a meaning of virgin in entomology
would necessitate a different sign.

The reason it matters is that if Mercury is the correct symbol, it is
already encoded in Unicode, but if "Female with V above" is really what is
intended, it perhaps should be encoded separately.

If you have any familiarity with this situation, please let me know (1)
which way you first learned it, and (2) any published accounts that might
clear it up.

Thanks!

--
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department            Voice: +1 909 869 4062
California State Polytechnic University     FAX: +1 909 869 4078
Pomona CA 91768-4032  USA                  jcclark at csupomona.edu