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unusual facts about scientific name



Bordered White

It is (under its original scientific name Phalaena piniaria) the type species of its genus Bupalus, as well as the junior objective synonyms Catograpta, Chleuastes and Phaophyga, and the preoccupied Bupala

Cathartesaura

It also implies the juxtaposition of the components of the scientific name of the Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, whose Spanish name, "buitre", named the locality where the fossil was found due to the abundance of such birds there.

Coenagrion mercuriale

The specific part of the scientific name, mercuriale, is because of the distinctive markings on the second segment of the abdomen that resembles the astrological symbol for the planet Mercury - ☿.

Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Several other species bear his name in their scientific names, including the Takahe, Porphyrio hochstetteri, and Powelliphanta hochstetteri, a species (with five subspecies) of New Zealand's giant carnivorous land snails.

Green-bellied Hummingbird

The western taxa of the Andean slopes and the eastern taxa of the Tepui region are sometimes considered separate species, with the former retaining the scientific and common name, while the latter is named the Copper-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia cupreicauda, with races duidae and laireti), also sometimes placed in the genus Saucerottia.

Intein

The first part of an intein name is based on the scientific name of the organism in which it is found, and the second part is based on the name of the corresponding gene or extein.

Javan lutung

The Latin word auratus in its scientific name means "golden", and refers to a less common color variant.

Marstonia pachyta

The armored marstonia, scientific name Marstonia pachyta, also known as Pyrgulopsis pachyta, is a species of freshwater snail, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Hydrobiidae.

Sirenoscincus mobydick

The scientific name Sirenoscincus mobydick consists of the pre-existing parent genus Sirenoscincus, and the name of the white sperm whale from the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.


see also

Aipysurus eydouxii

The scientific name commemorates the French naturalist Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux.

Andean Snipe

The scientific name of the Andean Snipe commemorates the Scottish botanist William Jameson.

Arabian Woodpecker

Though scientifically described by George Latimer Bates and Norman Boyd Kinnear, the scientific name was proposed by their occasional co-worker St. John Philby, after his wife Dora.

Barn spider

This spider was made well known in the book Charlotte's Web by American writer E. B. White, with a particularly interesting point that the spider's full name is Charlotte A. Cavatica, a reference to the barn spider's scientific name, Araneus cavaticus.

Castorland, New York

The name is derived from the scientific name for "Beaver".

Cercidiphyllum

The scientific name Cercidiphyllum refers to the close resemblance of the leaves to those of Cercis (redbuds); these two unrelated genera can however be distinguished easily as redbud leaves are alternate, not opposite.

Chinese Monal

The scientific name, lhuysii, commemorates the French statesman Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys.

Crimson Chat

A bird species similar to and often confused with the Crimson Chat is the Male Red-capped Robin, whose scientific name is Petroica goodenovii.

Dolphin Gull

The modern scientific name Leucophaeus scoresbii, together with the obsolete common name "Scoresby's Gull", commemorates the English explorer William Scoresby (1789–1857).

Erythrina × bidwillii

Erythrina × bidwillii is the scientific name for two different cultivars produced from hybridising Erythrina species at Camden Park Estate, New South Wales, Australia, in the early 1840s by William Macarthur, one of the most active and influential horticulturists in Australia.

Finsch's Euphonia

The common name and scientific name commemorate the German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial explorer Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839 - 31 January 1917, Braunschweig).

Fischer's Turaco

The common name and scientific name commemorate the German explorer Gustav Fischer.

Geomalia

The scientific name commemorates its discoverer, the German explorer Gerd Heinrich.

Glowlight danio

A less frequently traded geographical variant from the Putao area of northern Myanmar, known as the "northern glowlight danio", sometimes is referred to by a fictitious scientific name "Danio putaoensis".

Green Jay

Formerly (and sometimes still) lumped with Inca Jay (C. yncas) of South America; the lumped species is then called Green Jay, but with the scientific name of C. yncas.

Guanay Cormorant

The scientific name commemorates the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Homo floresiensis

Homo floresiensis was unveiled on 28 October 2004, and was swiftly nicknamed the "Hobbit", after the fictional race popularized in J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit, and a proposed scientific name for the species was Homo hobbitus.

Justicia brandegeeana

The species is named after the American botanist Townshend Stith Brandegee (1843–1925); the scientific name is commonly seen misspelled "brandegeana".

Kirky

Nqwebasaurus A genus of dinosaur which was nicknamed "Kirky" after the Kirkwood Formation before receiving its scientific name.

Large Grey Babbler

The scientific name was given by Colonel W H Sykes in appreciation of support that he received from Major-General Sir John Malcolm.

Leptoxis ampla

Pleurocera ampla (Anthony, 1854) is another species with similar scientific name.

Long-tailed Broadbill

The scientific name commemorates Christina Broun, Countess of Dalhousie (1786–1839), wife of George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie.

Louis François Auguste Souleyet

He is himself commemorated in the scientific name of the Streak-headed Woodcreeper, Lepidocolaptes souleyetii, named for him by DesMurs and in the Heteropod Protatlanta souleyeti by Edgar A. Smith in 1888.

Maotherium

Its scientific name means "Mao's beast" after the Chinese politician Mao Zedong.

Meolans

Piedmont Ringlet (scientific name Erebia meolans), a species of butterfly

Mindanao Pygmy Babbler

The scientific name commemorates the German zoologist Carl Constantin Platen.

Mongolian gerbil

This scientific name in a combination of Greek and modified Latin loosely translates as "clawed warrior" in English, partly stemming from the Greek warrior Meriones in Homer's Iliad, combined with 'unguiculate' meaning to have claws or nails.

Muscinae

From the 19th century, the term "Muscinae" is also an obsolete scientific name for the mosses (modern Bryophyta), once used in the taxonomy of Ernst Haeckel (circa 1899).

Phrydiuchus tau

The adult weevil is dark gray to black and has a marking on its back that looks like a white letter T, or tau, hence its scientific name.

Pinus palustris

The scientific name meaning, "of marshes," is a misunderstanding on the part of Philip Miller who described the species, after seeing Longleaf Pine forests with temporary winter flooding.

Pseudotrichonotus

As their scientific name suggests, they physically resemble the sandfish (genus Trichonotus).

Raketa mena

To calm their thirst and hunger, many villages eat "raketa mena", a cactus whose scientific name is Opuntia stricta.

Rhamnus lycioides

Its scientific name lycioides refers to its resemblance to the botanical genus Lycium.

Rufous-bellied Seedsnipe

The scientific name of this bird commemorates the French naturalist Claude Gay.

Ryukyu Kingfisher

Its taxonomic status is doubtful; it is most likely a subspecies of the Micronesian Kingfisher, which would make its scientific name Todiramphus cinnamomina miyakoensis.

Sassi's Olive Greenbul

The scientific name commemorates the Austrian zoologist Ludwig Lorenz von Liburnau.

Serule

There is a high rate of harvesting of the seasonal caterpillar of a Mopane worm known as Phane (scientific name Gonimbrasia belina).

Slender-billed Gull

The scientific name of this bird commemorates the Italian naturalist Giuseppe Gené.

Southern Boubou

The rufous on the underparts, which gives this species its scientific name, distinguishes it from the Tropical and Swamp Boubous.

Specific epithet

A specific epithet is the second part of a scientific name in Binomial nomenclature.

Squalus philippinus

Port Jackson shark, Squalus philippinus Shaw, 1804 is a junior synonym to its accepted scientific name Heterodontus portusjacksoni

Stag beetle

The scientific name of Lucanus cervus is this word, plus cervus, deer.

Tailed tailless bat

The scientific name of this species is variously given as either A. caudifer or A. caudifera, with scientists having argued for both names on the basis of Latin grammar and of the ICZN rules on the naming of species.

The branched palmyra tree

This palmyra tree (scientific name: Hyphaene thebaica) is believed to have its origin from a foreign country.

Wilson's Bird-of-paradise

The controversial scientific name of this species was given by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and a republican idealist, who described the bird from a badly damaged trade specimen purchased by British ornithologist Edward Wilson.