Most Fun Scientific Names

birdsandbats

birdsandbats

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Which scientific names do you think are the most fun to say? Personally, I like Lama glama and Hypostomus plecostomus.
 
Porcula salvania
Symphalangus syndactylus
Procyon lotor
Macaca maura and Macaca mulatta
Naja nubiae
Wunderpus photogenicus
Bitis gabonica
Kinixys spekii
Manouria emys
Batagur baska
Mecistops cataphractus
Uncia uncia
Vulpes velox
Epicrates exsul
Cuniculus paca
Eidolon helvum

Wish I knew more birds.
 
I've always liked the scientific names that couple as puns. Things like the braconid wasps Heerz lukenatcha and Heerz tooya, the fungus beetle genus Gelea (pronounced 'jelly') which includes species like Gelea baen, Gelea belae, Gelea donut, Gelea fish and Gelea rol and the flies Pieza kake, Pieza pi and Pieza rhea.
 
Fossil insects:
Tyrannosorus rex
Carmenelectra shechisme

Moths:
La cerveza
La cucaracha
La paloma
(literally in Spanish they would mean: "The beer, The cockroach, The pigeon")

Cave-dwelling insect:
Gollumjapyx smeagol (authors told that names of classic mythology are plentiful used in binomials, so why not modern mythology too?)

Longest scientific name of the species that I have photographed:
Lobocarcinus paulinowurtenberbensis

Some species named intentionedly for be the last alphabetically available scientific names ever:
Zyzzyva rufula (weevil)
Zyzzyx chilensis (wasp)

A marine snail:
Distortio anus (take in account that in Latin, anus means grandmother)
In the same sense, Agrotis puta and Carabus putus (puta meaning whore in spanish, but in Latin is a very different meaning)

A wasp:
Stenodynerus fastidiosissimus. I wonder if the wasp stinged the descriptor...

I always wondered a bit about specific epithets that have various separations: (Mammillaria stella-de-tacubaya, Brownea rosa-de-monte...) These separations are not allowed in animal names, except for a single character (c-album, m-flavum, etc)

From other side I also like the name of the lice Columbicola extintus, who parasited passenger pigeon, so it went supposedly extinct with the species. After many years, the lice was rediscovered alive in a Columba fasciata :)

There is a website dedicated to fun scientific names. I didn't visited it yet, but I found it and will take a look now. Here is: Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
 
Michael Bright includes the following in 'The frog with self-cleaning feet.'
Montypythonoides - a giant fossil snake
Arthurdactylus conan-doylensis - a pterodactyl named after the author of The Lost World
Dracorex hogwartsia - a dinosaur
Ichabodcraniosaurus - a dinosaur found without a skull, named after Ichabod Crane, who was chased by a headless horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Ytu brutus - a water beetle
Ba humbugi - a land snail
Agra phobia and Agra vation - ground beetles
Hunkydora - clam
Abra cadabra - former name for a clam (Theora)
Ptomaspis, Dikenaspis and Ariaspis - fossil fish representing Tom, Dick and Harry
Peiza pi, Peiza rhea, Peiza kake, Peiza deresistans, Phthiria relativitae and Ohmyia omya - flies
Gressitia titsadaysi and Tabanus rhizonshine - horseflies
Rhyacophila tralala - a caddifly
Eubetia bigaulae, Eubetia boop, Castnia inca dincadu and Notoreas - moths
Vini vidivici - a lorikeet
Ittibitium and Bittium - molluscs
Ochisme, Dollichisme, Florichisme, Marichisme, Nanichisme and Polychisme - bugs named after George Kirkaldy's girlfriends
Erechthias beeblebroxi - a false-headed moth
Fiordichthys slartibartfasti - a triple-finned blenny
Heerz lukenatcha, Heerz tooya, Pison eu, Verae peculya and Panama canalia - wasps
Pericompus bilbo, Eurygenius, Oops, Cyclopcephala nodanotherrwon, Gelaw baen, Gelae belae, Gelae donut, Gelae fish and Gelae rol - beetles
Cephise nuspesez - skipper butterfly
Eremobates inyoanus - a camel spider
Apopyllus now, Draculoides bramstokeri and Walckenaeria pinocchio - spiders
 
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