Found this which might help you:
[quote]Letter Sounds:
From saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm
Several authors have identified rules that describe the traditional English pronunciation. Usage varies among individuals and continues to evolve, but the descriptive rules serve as a convenient pronunciation benchmark.
Pronunciation of biological Latin
Letter sounds are as in English words (and therefore vary with dialect).
The digraphs ae and oe are treated as the letter e.
aesthetic, aestivate, aestuary haemorrhage (pronounced as short English e as in met)
anaemia, aether, larvae , archaeology (pronounced as long English e as in me, we)
oesophagus, oestrogen (short e sound)
foetus, amoeba (long e sound)
Note the ae ending in animal and plant family names: Canidae, the dog family, is pronounced “canidee,” not “caniday.” Similarly - Camelidae, Salmonidae, Rosaceae, etc. [/quote]
I found a guide on Latin pronunciation which says ‘ae’ when actually reading Latin “should” (since obviously no-one actually knows) be a lengthened short ‘e’ like the ‘ai’ in fair.
So it sounds like it should be some variant of ‘e’, at any rate. But even that I guess does not necessarily mean that ‘most Americans’ pronounce it in this way - if they pronounce it at all I thought bababa’s suggestion was the most practical - if they are actually organised enough to have a style book.