History of the taxon:

Etymology of the name:

Taxon: Phycodnaviridae Proposal: Ratification_1990.pdf  ICTV Report:  Reference: PMID: 12181671 

from the Ancient Greek φῦκος (phûkos), meaning “seaweed” and DNA for deoxyribonucleic acid, referring to the host (marine or freshwater eukaryotic algae) and the dsDNA genome of viruses in the family; the suffix -viridae for family taxa