Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names

So its name is a case of wishful thinking by unsexy people? :grin:

Well, it mentions some color that the NIV translates as blue – 50 times: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=blue&version=NIV

Except that the ā€œsea foamā€ in that meme isn’t green at all. It’s blue, actually intermediate between the ā€œspindriftā€ and the turquoise. (Note no quotation marks around that last one, which actually should be above teal on that spectrum.)

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Plant name

Num-nums
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130216-Carissa

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I just saw an observation of a Mile-a-minute Weevil and thought if this thread!

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The common name makes sense, as it eats mile-a-minute weed (also called devil’s tail). Have seen the plant here in South Korea but can’t recall ever coming across the weevil. (I just checked, no R. latipes observations on iNat for South Korea.)

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Popped into the thread to share Gymnosporangium clavariiforme, with the English common name ā€˜Tongues of Fire’.

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I’m a a bit fond of:

Clearly, they hadn’t evolved until humans came along and built barns and fences :thinking:

Seems like all sides of the fence had to be built!

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I searched but didn’t find so far, any reference to this guy:

image

Which is, of course, Xenoturbella profunda.

Commonly (?) known as the purple sock. (If you live in the ocean deep off the Californian coast, I guess.)

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Kind of like the Chimney Swift

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Fungi names are ridiculous,

my fav is definitely : dog vomit slime mold

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That’s not a fungi though.)

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my apologies, I am still learning.

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No need to apologize, that’s a cool group!

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I think that makes it an even better fit for the topic since by common name alone it’s assumed to be a Fungi rather than a Protozoa. I know I checked Taxonomy for Dog Vomit Slime Mold (Fuligo septica), just to learn what it was, if not fungi.

In the same theme, there’s also Dog Sick Slime Mold (Mucilago crustacea). What are naturalists who name these feeding their dogs?

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Grass or anything, it does look a lot like dog vomit tbh, it’s acid and ferments that give it yellowish tint.

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Recently came across Naked Buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum) which is way too similar to buck naked, though not an animal.

Hey, I just added that one to my list the other day! My first slime mold too.

And then, same trip, I added a second slime mold species, the chocolate tube slime mold.

As far as variety of form, color and structures go, Marina’s right. A very cool group.

Those two were from the last trip just before I got a Tg-5, and I really regret that I missed getting a better shot than I now can.

However, when I went out again right after I got the new camera, the dog vomit one was still there, but no more chocolate tube (it was smack in the middle of a busy trail on the top of a stump, so I wasn’t too surprised that it had gone.)

But, the good news is that I think I found another much smaller chocolate specimen nearby with the distinctive thread structures just starting to form and just visibly detectable in the camera’s micro mode.

And I know that I’m getting a little tired about feeling so naive about this stuff, but what’s the protocol for whether or not to add a new observation of a species you just added in the same area days apart?

I can see why that could be a problem in the system. I mean, dandelions on my lawn come to mind. But this new photo is an interesting development shot and I can’t add it to the older obs as an additional image, as it’s a different time stamp and slightly different location. Advice?

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Put links in the description/coments, use observation fields like ā€œsimilar observation setā€, both or one could work!
p.s. it’s Marina as Maria is a name from another group.)

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Make a new observation and relate it back to the first post. I often track the development of observations… especially things that can change dramatically, like slime molds.
Even after watching an incredible PBS show on them (I think it was from the series Nova) I don’t understand them. But I have seen an incredibly large colony of it growing on low-lying wet ground.

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D’oh! I may be new to observation protocols, but messing up people’s names and faces has been a lifelong weakness for me. Thanks for the correction, and thanks to Marina too, who has been a big help in a lot of my baby-stepping here.

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Honestly, same. :D
I misread HumanByWeight & a few other users repeatedly, despite seeing them IDing and/or commenting on mine & others’ observations or on the forum repeatedly.

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I just learned about Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis) and reading the scientific name, thought: ā€œThis insect has a glassy WHAT?ā€ so I looked it up (see: P → penn)… wings, it has glassy wings.