Fun with scientific names

Post by **Silurus** » 25 Mar 2003, 11:50

If you think scientific names are always boring and unpronounceable, look again.
This is not in there, but a new plant genus from New Zealand has just been named <i>Hebejeebie</i>.

König Löwe · Post by **König Löwe** » 25 Mar 2003, 15:38

Carmenelectra shechisme is my favorite fossil... And the catfish genus Satan sounds like a good genus ;)

Bathos · Post by **Bathos** » 25 Mar 2003, 17:44

what a great site!

i must admit, hosta Outhouse Delight and hosta Spilt Milk always ammused me. (they're plants, not animals, and outhouse delight and spilt milk are their varieties, but i still thought they were funny. odd what some people will name things...)

-Liz

Charly EON · Post by **Charly EON** » 26 Mar 2003, 02:09

Interesting site HH !!

My favorites

spelling : Tahuantinsuoya macantzatza

Corydoras narcissus (look why it has this species name !!)

Charly

vulkoq · Post by **vulkoq** » 28 Mar 2003, 05:00

Common names are even cooler, though.

Man Eating Catfish
Alabama Hog Sucker
Needle Fin Eater & Malawi Eye Biter-- "The guy at the pet store said it was a good community fish."

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 28 Mar 2003, 16:27

Always liked abedefduf for Damselfish. They should also run a page for the most unpronouncable names...

Jools

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 28 Mar 2003, 19:57

I've got a weakness for things like
Hara hara
Chaca chaca
Conta conta
Pipa pipa
Vimba vimba
Bombina bombina
try a few of these on the tune of "hare krishna" ; it'll sound really new age, and nobody will know you're just worshipping the god of fishes and unspeakable weird ugly frogs

Post by **Dinyar** » 28 Mar 2003, 21:21

I was intrigued to learn recently that the ICBN (botanical) forbids genus names from being used as species names.

I'm also intrigued by the fact that so many of these doubled catfish names are for Indian fish (Chaca, Hara, Conta, Rita, Batasio, Bagarius, Gagata, Nangra, Nandus, etc.). Silurus, can you enlighten us?

OK, I just found an answer to my own question. Almost all these species were described by Hamilton in 1822! Didn't look up Hamilton's given name, but let me take a guess...

Dinyar

Post by **Silurus** » 28 Mar 2003, 23:02

These are all Indian names for the catfishes (usually in Bengali). Hamilton described them in different genera initially, but Bleeker later gave them the same generic names as the species names (such names are called tautonyms, BTW).

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 29 Mar 2003, 02:15

Maybe ol' Hamilton stumbled across something else from Bengal as well; there's more than fish from there and it gives you much inspiration.

Post by **Dinyar** » 05 Apr 2003, 07:44

Silurus wrote:These are all Indian names for the catfishes (usually in Bengali). Hamilton described them in different genera initially, but Bleeker later gave them the same generic names as the species names (such names are called tautonyms, BTW).

Check out this post in the Asian forum:
http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=1380

Dinyar