Fun species named after other species

Nature Talk
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I love weird or funny species names, but I’ve recently noticed how many of them are actually named after other animals or plants.

I suppose some of them are named that way because of a connection between the species, like an anteater eats ants, or a horseweed is eaten by horses??, but lots seem to be based on appearance.

  • Zebra jumping spider (black and white stripes)
  • Fleabane
  • Grey catbird (sounds like a cat)
  • Northern leopard frog
  • Turkey-tail fungus
  • Banana slug
  • Dogvomit slime mold

I’d guess that there are some species that have lots of other things named after them.

Imagine if the names were because they were a combination of species. I don’t think I’d want to meet a Zebra Jumping Spider, if that were the case!

Which other ones can you think of?

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(moved this to Nature Talk)

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One I saw on my recent road trip to Las Vegas: Tree cholla! A cactus that looks similar to a tree or shrub.

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A few of my favorites are:

Peacock Mantis Shrimp, which is neither a peacock, nor a mantis, nor a true shrimp (Decapoda)

Delightful Bird Dropping Moth, named for being pretty and looking like bird poop

Laurel Sphinx Moth, incorrectly named after Laurel the plant- the moth was named Sphinx kalmiae after Pehr Kalm, but later writers mistook “kalmiae” as a reference to Kalmia, the genus containing Laurels. So they gave it the common name “Laurel Sphinx”, despite the moth having nothing to do with Laurel.

Another Dotted Fruit Chafer, presumably named because there were other Dotted Fruit Chafers, and this is Another one :/

Hyppa potamus was deliberately named to sound like “hippopotamus” because Troubridge likes puns (his proposal to give a new Sympistis the name Sympistis pants didn’t pass the ICZN; say it out-loud and it’s clear why not lol)

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Striped tiger butterfly (or plain tiger or blue tiger or white tiger, etc etc)

pretty silly names if you think about it hehe

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If you enjoy silly Latin names in general, this website is a great collection of hundreds of the oddest ones:

https://www.curioustaxonomy.net/

They include real names like Apopyllus now; the genus Gelae (pronounced “jelly”), which includes Gelae baen, Gelae belae, Gelae donut, Gelae fish, Gelae rol, etc.; Riga toni; Reissa roni; etc.

It also details some naming battles that taxonomists got into, like Warburg naming a fossil Isbergia planifrons meaning “Isenberg has a flat head” and Warburg responding by naming another fossil Warburgia crassa, meaning “Warburg is fat”.

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There are also the Peacock spiders, including the Sparklemuffin Peacock Spider, which is one of my friend’s favorite spiders.

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wolf spiders (LYCOsidae) have a lot of genus names referring to larger predators, including LYCosa (wolf), TIGRosa (tiger), PARDosa (panther), ARCtosa (bear), ALOPECosa (fox), CROCODILosa (… this one’s fairly obvious!)

one of my favorite animals is an antlion, family myrmeleontidae (myrme = ant, leon = lion). an early alternate name for Myrmeleon was Formicaleo (again literally ‘antlion’). my username is an antlion genus that lives in trees (dendro).

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I like the European attempts to make sense of Australian birds. Australian Magpie - not a magpie. Australian robins aren’t robins. Buttonquails - not quails. Scrub Tits - not tits. Speckled Warblers - not warblers. Heathwrens, Scrubwrens, Fairywrens - not wrens. Emu Wrens - Neither emus nor wrens. Quail-thrushes - not quails nor thrushes. Cuckooshrikes - neither cuckoos nor shrikes. Shrike-tits - neither shrikes nor tits.Shrike-thrushes - neither shrikes nor thrushes.

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Not exactly funny, but I recently learned something new: the ailanthus moth (very pretty, orange, slender moth) is native to North America. However, the ailanthus, aka the tree-of-heaven, is an infamous invasive species here in the US.

What happened was that the native moths adapted to the non-native ailanthus, so much so that it had become its main food source. This is the reason it’s called the ailanthus moth.

I had originally assumed they had to be invasive, as the ailanthus is their host plant, but this interesting reaction had even prompted the native moth to be named after the invasive plant!

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All extant “penguins” (I call them sphenicids to sound smarter and be more accurate) are allegedly named after the penguin, a species of extinct Great auk. People knew about both taxa for a long time, but from what I’ve heard the term was applied to the Great auk before sphenicids got the name. Correct me if this is wrong.

The wasp mantidflies (Climaciella) are neither wasps nor mantises but are instead in Neuroptera with other mantisflies/mantidflies, owlflies, lacewings, etc.

Cathartes aura is known as the turkey vulture, and the scientific name for the turkey species we know and love is Meleagris gallopavo, which roughly translated means guineafowl fowl-peacock (Linnaeus tried really hard on this one).

Buteo jamaicensis is sometimes called a chicken hawk (I give myself half credit because “hawk” is in the name and describes the bird accurately), but it is better known in my part of the country as the red-tailed hawk.

Hippopotamus (“hippo-” = horse). Bullfrog. Tapir frog. Wolverine. Owlet moth. Aardwolf. Koala bear. Meerkat. Maned wolf. Jellyfish, starfish. Tufted titmouse. Sea dragon. Sea rabbit. Electric eel. Pigeon horntail. Horny toad. Vampire squid (genetically closer to octopus). Wolf eel. Giraffe weevil. Muskrat.

Lionfish, catfish, batfish, frogfish, toadfish, zebrafish, scorpionfish, dragonfish (half credit because we don’t consider Komodo dragons as dragons), seahorse.

Bull shark, tiger shark, lemon shark, leopard shark, salmon shark. Spiny dogfish. Eagle ray. Saw shark (genetically closer to rays than sharks).

Mountain goat and muskox (time for a better name for both of these cool ungulates!).

Sun spider or wind scorpion for all solifuges.

Elephant shrew (neither elephant nor true shrew). Naked mole rat (neither genetically close to true moles nor to rats). Tiger bee fly (neither a tiger nor a bee, half points for being a fly). Hummingbird hawkmoth.

Anything marsupial + (name for a placental mammal here, examples include lion, tiger, rat, mouse, porcupine). Any something-bug that is not in Hemiptera and any something-fly that is not in Diptera.

I don’t know if anemones the plants or anemones the animals were named first, but one has to be named after the other.

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they aren’t owls or flies, but they are antlions, which aren’t ants or lions!

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That sounded like something some sort of toddlers’ doll or cat name or something silly until I clicked on the link, and oh! it was totally appropriate for the cute lil muffin! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Turkey vulture!!

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Crowpoison (A plant) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/334128265
Dixie reindeer lichen https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/333899575
Sycamore seed bug (Looks like a sycamore seed? I don’t know, I’m not terribly knowledgable about how things were named :)) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/332170358

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zebra mussel…

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Monkey Moth is a pretty funny one. I don’t know how it’s supposed to be related to a monkey.

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Most of the species I’m interested in don’t have an English name. One of my favourite Latin names (because it is just fun to say) goes to the fly Polyporivora polypori, which would translate to something like “polypore eater of the polypore”.

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“Common Musk Turtle”

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Named after the food source. This is actually a fairly common way of naming animals that are closely associated with a particular host.

This is often reflected in the epitheton as well as the common name:

  • true bugs, e.g.: Eurydema oleracea (cabbages), Platypax salviae (sage), Dictyla echii (viper’s bugloss), Heterogaster urticae (stinging nettle), Campylomma verbasci (mulleins)
  • moths and butterflies, e.g.: Pieris brassicae, Pieris napi, Pieris rapae (various cabbages), Aglais urticae (stinging nettle), Cucullia verbasci (mulleins)
  • bees, e.g.: Colletes hederae (ivy), Chelostoma rapunculi (bellflowers, also called rampion/rapunzel), Tetralonia malvae (mallows)
  • beetles, e.g.: Pyrrhalta viburni (viburnum), Chrysomela populi (poplars), Anthonomus ulmi (elms)

Occasionally insects are named after a plant even when there is no close association, e.g. Halictus scabiosae (not closely bound to scabious, though frequently found on it), Mimas tillae (lindens are only one of several host plants), Thecla betulae (birches are not a host plant) etc.

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