Re: Rhaphidophora sp. at Fairchild Tropical Garden
- To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L
- Subject: Re: Rhaphidophora sp. at Fairchild Tropical Garden
- From: K* K*
- Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 20:42:50 -0500 (CDT)
On Fri, 23 Jun 2000, Julius Boos wrote:
> Back in the 'good old days' of the predecessor of this list on snail mail, I
> posted a letter to members pointing out that unlike SOME of the scientists
> who name plants in this group of organisms, there were others who did so,
> seemingly with a sense of humor, in other groups. Examples given then were
> the Trinidadian cave-living lizard Proctoporus shreevii (Shreeves 'anus'),
> and a genus of cave-living millipedes, given the name
> 'Caramba' (Spanish for 'upon my word, or better yet, DAMN!--I am NOT making
> this up!!) by the researcher Shear.
> The first species he names-- Caramba delburro ('the donkeys damn'), then
> came Caramba delnegro (easy on this one!) , then Caramba grandeza (the HUGE
> damn!) and finally Caramba enbecausius (because I say DAMN!)
> Take heart Pete, with a LITTLE imagination (I can assist with this aspect!)
> and some thought to the phallic 'background' to OUR group of plants, the
> list of available species epithets is truly mind boggling!
I plugged "lalapa lusa" into google search and it came with a really fun
page with taxonomical jokestry: http://www.best.com/~atta/taxonomy.html.
Some of the ones that caught my atttention:
Eucritta melanolimnetes Clark, 1998 (fossil amphibian) Loosely translates
as "Creature from the black lagoon".
Panama canalia Marsh, 1993 (braconid)
Draculoides bramstokeri Harvey & Humphreys, 1995 (spider)
(too bad that orchid taxonomists did not think about this one - KK)
Trombicula doremi Brennan & Beck, 1955 (chigger)
Trombicula fasola Brennan & Beck, 1955 (chigger)
Agra vation Erwin, 1983 (carabid)
A bunch of bug species named by the same entomologist, Kirkaldy): Ochisme,
Dolichisme, Florichisme, Marichisme, Nanichisme, Peggichisme, Polychisme
(read them out loud = I did not get it until Peggichisme) Kirkaldy was
criticized for frivolity by the London Zoological Society in 1912.
Pison eu Menke, 1988 (sphecid)
Another good page is: http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html (click on
"Curious Scientific Names")
KK
====================
"Microsoft is to software what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking"
Krzysztof Kozminski
kk@netgate.net
http://u1.netgate.net/~kk/
