Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names

Nature Talk
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Humbug. A fish, not a bug.

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Grape drupe. Grapes are berries, peaches are drupes, but a grape drupe is a snail.

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Two Spanish ones:
Hormigas león. Ant lions aren’t ants, they are predators of ants, but the syntax sounds like they’re a lion kind of ants. I checked Wiktionary, which has it pluralized on “hormiga”.
Playero pihuihuí (some bird in Charadriiformes). I think “pihuihuí” sounds funny.

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Mmm, that’s becaue it’s Catalan, not French. It means 
‘whatever’.

Sounds like somebody got bored, maybe? :laughing:

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I like the Chriacus.

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Macaroni Penguin, Oilbird

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A few of my faves:
Smew ( a bird)
Rustic (The least rustic looking butterfly- kinda ironic)
Chicken turtle ( A turtle)
Sarcastic fringehead ( A fish)
Aha ha ( Just google it)

EDIT: Aha ha is a wasp.

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Monoculus monstrosus (also known as Octeospermum monstrosum) has always felt absurdly dramatic for a random weedy daisy. Monopsis debilis - ‘Devil Oneeye’ on iNat - is about as intimidating, and on an even smaller weed.

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Octopus Stinkhorn
Dog Vomit Slime Mold

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I was once told that Calycanthus floridus is sometimes called “scrotbush” due to the suspicious looking fruit. This was by someone who grew up in very rural Appalachia, so I assume this is such a niche regionalism that I can’t find any record of it online, or he just made it up.

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Lesser Broomrape
Bastard Toadflax

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Broomrape! Wikipedia tells me it’s also called ‘Hellroot’. 100% accurate

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Bryophytes are great for this:

Anomalous Flapwort
Handsome Woollywort

But so are fungi:
Eastern American Alder Tongue Gall Fungus
Powdery Kidney Lichen
Stinking Orange Oyster
Bark Barnacles

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“debilis” is Latin for “weak,” not for “devil.”

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Difficult sea cucumber (Holothuria difficilis). Probably named for taxonomic difficulty, like the confused flour beetle.
Pumpkinseed, A fish.

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When one knows very little latin it sounds scary. And I don’t know why that’s the common name it has on iNat, but it is!

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boops boops
sarcastic fringehead
pleasing fungus beetle
fried egg jellyfish
humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa

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Gosh what a name!

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GANDALFUS (crab genus)

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I think it’s Hawaiian.