I was just putting together a little guide to some common species for a festival some friends are organising, and took the opportunity to learn German common names for many species I only know english and scientific names for. Amusingly, Abax parallelepipedus is called “Große Breitkäfer” in German, literally “Big Wide Beetle”. Other than being amusingly blunt and literal, it’s completely inaccurate as the beetle is neither big nor wide! Perhaps I’ll stick to english common names…
3 Likes
Insects sure get stabbed a lot…0-0
1 Like
There are definitely some funny German insect names, my favorites are the ones that are just impossible to pronounce for non-german speakers… I’m a big fan of the Blauflüggelige Ödlandschrecke, as well as the Vogelknöterich-purpurbindenspanner
4 Likes
With these two:
Describing the nymph as small or adult as large gets very confusing.
2 Likes
Butter Butt is pretty common. I also use yump sometimes, but I don’t know whether that is just a YMOS thing.
3 Likes
The Nodding Thistle Receptacle Weevil just showed up as a CV suggestion on my cicada observation.
1 Like
Fish have quite a few. Slippery dick and bony-eared assfish have been mentioned already, but what about:
-Idiot Fish: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/112423-Sebastolobus-alascanus
-Mummichog: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/58642-Fundulus-heteroclitus
-Red Irish Lord: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/221165-Hemilepidotus-hemilepidotus
-Blue Bastard: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/525646-Plectorhinchus-caeruleonothus
-Puddingwife: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49942-Halichoeres-radiatus
-There’s also the Scaly Boy, Aboma etheostoma, which I actually suspect is a typo of “Scaly Goby” that was carried over across multiple pages unchecked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly_boy
Not fish-related, but some taxa on iNat have a vague common name that starts with “the” which I find hilarious for some reason. Meet:
-The Prince: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=49547
-The Passenger: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/199266-Dysgonia-algira
-The Ancient King: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/443322-Saxifraga-florulenta
-The Brick: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1419331-Sunira-circellaris
In my search for more names, I just found an amazing plant name: the Slime Soldier-in-a-Box!
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/119355-Albuca-flaccida
5 Likes
There’s also Butter-and-Eggs!
3 Likes
Short Stringy Stingy Thingy, a type of siphonophore.
I suppose there is or will be another species in the same genus named the “Long Stringy Stingy Thingy”.
Edit: it turns out there is in fact another species sometimes known as the Long Stringy Stingy Thingy, but it’s in a different genus.
Edit the second: “Short Stringy Stingy Thingy” has been removed, since no evidence could be found of its use outside iNaturalist.
6 Likes
alright, that’s it. that’s my new favourite. Short Stingy Stringy Thingy
There already is, the name just wasn’t in iNat yet.
4 Likes
Puddingwife sounds like some kind of really obscure insult, lol!
5 Likes
Today I learned that beech blight aphids (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) are also known as boogie woogie aphids due to their behavior of waving their posterior around as a warning display: Dancing woolly aphids will probably stab you
Reddit video: Found some tiny strange bugs dancing around a leaf while hiking.
If it matters to anyone (NSFW situations, etc.), there is a word of profanity in the subreddit name.
7 Likes
I have heard of a few funny and wierd names.
A ground beetle of the Agra Family of Beetles called the Agra Cadabra. Its appearence is colorful but really tough to photograph. Its actions are too fast
5 Likes
The fruit is actually disgusting, and the flesh exactly like snot, hence the name. Magnificent tree though
How did Bugeranus carunculatus get its name ?
1 Like
Has the Stalked-Puffball-in-Aspic been mentioned yet?
3 Likes
There is something called a Blobfish found in the depths of the ocean. Out of water the blobfish is aptly named, as it’s one big gelatinous blob, but in their high-pressure deep-sea habitats, they look a little more like normal fish.
1 Like