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!
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
My favorite is what is possibly the longest English common name, the Association Européenne pour l’Etude et la Conservation des Lémuriens’ Sportive Lemur.
3 Likes
“English”, ha!
Well for the most part is isn’t English (arguably only one word in that name is English), but it is an English name.
1 Like
Understood – I just found it funny. I guess “Sportive” and “Lemur” are both English.
Lemur is actually Latin for ghost.
5 Likes
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/8271-Dicrurus-bracteatus Spangled Drongo.
2 Likes
My bad, but I can’t fix it because it seems you can’t edit comments that old.
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
The word Lemur comes from Lemurum.
1 Like
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.
5 Likes
I never said it made it any less English, I was only saying it is (arguably) also a Latin word.
4 Likes
Isn’t it considered an act of torture for you to start reading Vogon poetry at us?
12 Likes
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…
11 Likes
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!
2 Likes
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.
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.
4 Likes
heehheeehheee!
1 Like
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!
3 Likes