# Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names **URL:** \ **Category:** Nature Talk\ **Tags:** mostly-humor, fun, common-names\ **Created:** [May 13, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220 "2019-05-13T17:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![jnstuart](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jnstuart/32/1623_2.png) [@jnstuart](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jnstuart)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/184 "2020-09-14T17:34:53Z")
Cool. That’s apparently a very recent species description (2020) since a search on the web provides almost nothing except websites talking about the actress! ---
**Author:** ![sullivanribbit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/sullivanribbit/32/1104_2.png) [@sullivanribbit](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/sullivanribbit)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/185 "2020-09-15T03:51:04Z")
It is indeed from 2020, but early enough 2020 that The Reptile Database first picked it up and then later iNaturalist was updated with the output from The Reptile Database. ---
**Author:** ![raymie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/raymie/32/12650_2.png) [@raymie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/raymie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/186 "2020-09-28T20:45:45Z")
My favorite is what is possibly the longest English common name, the [Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens’ Sportive Lemur](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/74486-Lepilemur-aeeclis). ---
**Author:** ![sullivanribbit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/sullivanribbit/32/1104_2.png) [@sullivanribbit](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/sullivanribbit)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2020, 10:35pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/187 "2020-09-29T22:35:39Z")
“English”, ha! ---
**Author:** ![raymie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/raymie/32/12650_2.png) [@raymie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/raymie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/188 "2020-09-30T01:39:43Z")
Well for the most part is isn’t English (arguably only one word in that name is English), but it is an English name. ---
**Author:** ![sullivanribbit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/sullivanribbit/32/1104_2.png) [@sullivanribbit](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/sullivanribbit)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/189 "2020-09-30T03:55:41Z")
Understood – I just found it funny. I guess “Sportive” and “Lemur” are both English. ---
**Author:** ![raymie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/raymie/32/12650_2.png) [@raymie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/raymie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/190 "2020-09-30T14:01:04Z")
Lemur is actually Latin for ghost. ---
**Author:** ![aliciasmith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/aliciasmith/32/11832_2.png) [@aliciasmith](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/aliciasmith)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/191 "2020-09-30T14:39:34Z")
Snottygobble. ---
**Author:** ![aliciasmith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/aliciasmith/32/11832_2.png) [@aliciasmith](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/aliciasmith)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/192 "2020-09-30T14:44:55Z")
[https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/8271-Dicrurus-bracteatus](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/8271-Dicrurus-bracteatus) Spangled Drongo. ---
**Author:** ![arboretum\_amy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/arboretum_amy/32/2328_2.png) [@arboretum\_amy](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/arboretum_amy)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/193 "2020-09-30T14:59:38Z")
My bad, but I can’t fix it because it seems you can’t edit comments that old. ---
**Author:** ![pmeisenheimer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/pmeisenheimer/32/10425_2.png) [@pmeisenheimer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pmeisenheimer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/194 "2020-09-30T17:06:35Z")
Sort of. _Lemurum_ is a Latin name for a malevolent spirit of a dead person. Lemur is English for lemur. Edited to add: Regardless, as a citizen of an English/French bilingual country I have to say that Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens’ Sportive Lemur is a pretty cool name, bien sûr. ---
**Author:** ![raymie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/raymie/32/12650_2.png) [@raymie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/raymie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 5:51pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/195 "2020-09-30T17:51:59Z")
The word Lemur comes from _Lemurum_. ---
**Author:** ![pmeisenheimer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/pmeisenheimer/32/10425_2.png) [@pmeisenheimer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pmeisenheimer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/196 "2020-09-30T18:35:12Z")
Sure. Like a lot of words in English, it is borrowed from a Latin word, in this case lemurum (plural lemures). Linnaeus based the generic name he applied to the animal on the Latin word for a ghostly entity based on its nocturnal habits and slow movements. English speakers use a common name based on the generic name Linnaeus chose. The word lemur appears in English dictionaries as an English word. If it also a Latin word (my Latin is limited - maybe there is some form of lemurum that is rendered that way) that doesn’t make it any less English. ---
**Author:** ![raymie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/raymie/32/12650_2.png) [@raymie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/raymie)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/197 "2020-09-30T18:57:34Z")
I never said it made it any less English, I was only saying it is (arguably) also a Latin word. ---
**Author:** ![Star3](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/star3/32/73028_2.png) [@Star3](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/Star3)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/198 "2020-10-01T02:19:46Z")
> [@aliciasmith](#): > > Snottygobble. > [@aliciasmith](#): > > Spangled Drongo. Isn’t it considered an act of torture for you to start reading Vogon poetry at us? ---
**Author:** ![pmeisenheimer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/pmeisenheimer/32/10425_2.png) [@pmeisenheimer](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/pmeisenheimer)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 2:29am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/199 "2020-10-01T02:29:36Z")
Beautiful. Just for that… _Oh freddled gruntbuggly, Thy micturations are to me, (with big yawning) As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning On a lurgid bee…_ ---
**Author:** ![jasonhernandez74](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/jasonhernandez74/32/33615_2.png) [@jasonhernandez74](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/jasonhernandez74)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/200 "2020-10-01T03:00:31Z")
> [@pmeisenheimer](#): > > Sort of. _Lemurum_ is a Latin name for a malevolent spirit of a dead person. > > Lemur is English for lemur. And then there is the legendary lost continent of Lemuria (a.k.a. Mu). Now there’s a place I’d like to make some iNat observations! ---
**Author:** ![haemocyanin11](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/haemocyanin11/32/12951_2.png) [@haemocyanin11](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/haemocyanin11)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/201 "2020-10-04T00:19:24Z")
I always found it weird that the Peppered Moth, _Biston betularia cognataria_, and the entire Tribe Bistonini are named after a Greek Demigod of War, Biston. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/2X/d/d2d56b198ab5b02ddef829176f82f4799d695903.jpeg) [https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54057004](https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54057004) by @jeanniefraser. Does this cute moth look like a raging Atreus to you? In any case, one possible version of the translation - Related Birch; Son of War; Son of River - would be awesome alternative name for any animal in general. Also, Bistonini sounds like a fancy panini sandwich that would be served at an expensive restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![aliciasmith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/aliciasmith/32/11832_2.png) [@aliciasmith](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/aliciasmith)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2020, 6:17am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/202 "2020-10-05T06:17:51Z")
heehheeehheee! ---
**Author:** ![manedwolf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/manedwolf/32/12754_2.png) [@manedwolf](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/manedwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220/203 "2020-10-17T03:19:57Z")
[https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/68918-Poecilanthrax-lucifer](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/68918-Poecilanthrax-lucifer) This little bugger from the bee fly family surprised me with the name it was given when I observed it for the first time recently. I suppose the original observer (Johan Christian Fabricius) either particularly disliked bees, flies, or perhaps both. And it’s the second devil-related name in this thread! [Previous page](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220.md?page=9) [Next page](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/funny-long-or-just-plain-weird-animal-names/3220.md?page=11)