I used to often go through lists, google searches, and so on looking for funny/weird animal names. I have made quite a few lists already, and I thought I would make a post here to see if some of you know some good ones. plants and fungi also welcome :) Here are some of my favorites that I can fin…

I found out today that Giant Water Bugs are also known as ‘Toe-biters’ which a much more entertaining name! https://inaturalist.ca/taxa/81570-Belostomatidae

Didn’t you know about that name? It’s a pretty common one. What do you think about the Hawaiian blue?

I think you need a separate topic specifically for taxa to add to your list! Not that I think there’s anything wrong with you following along here! It just turns out there’s a lot of fairy tale names (see here just for ones with “fairy” ) and they could get lost among the other names in this topic.…

But it’s pretty blue on upper side? [image] Here all Lycaenidae are called blues, even those that have no blue on them at all, only because majority are of that colour.

Same for most of the “blues” I’ve personally seen in central Texas. They are gray (maybe slate blue, if you’re feeling generous on the color mismatch) on the underside, but very clearly BLUE on the tops of their wings.

And they are very difficult for me to photograph with wings open! ( hand held iPhone in west Michigan)

Same! I have 4 observations of blues (3 in Texas, 1 in Italy). I only managed to photograph 1 (The Holly Blue in Italy) with it’s wings open enough to see the topside.

Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names

Nature Talk

Mercedes-Fletcher April 29, 2022, 5:13am 392

Well people here on this topic seem to be enjoying this so I don’t see why not!

Topic		Replies	Views
Interesting, funny, weird, e.t.c. plant names Nature Talk mostly-humor , fun , common-names , silliness	54	14112	September 4, 2026
Great, funny, or weird species names in other languages Nature Talk	38	15875	October 18, 2020
Organisms named after other organisms Nature Talk silliness	49	3507	January 2, 2021
New Names for old friends. How much to cut and how much to paste Nature Talk	20	966	July 9, 2022
Taxa with fairytale-esque names Nature Talk	70	3003	July 5, 2022

Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names

Related topics