A few minutes ago I did an ID for Tradescantia zebrina… Which has stripes… Like a zebra. Somehow my brain didn’t register that until just now. What’s your favourite organism named for another organism? (Scientific or common name). The sillier the better!

[image] daffydork: “Longan chicken” is pretty good! :D It’s no chicken! On that note, we should also mention Chicken of the Woods . Also not a chicken!

and i heard it tastes great sautéed with garlic and butter

The Mountain Chicken isn’t a bird, and the Orange Tiger isn’t even a vertebrate.

[image] haemocyanin11: does this include animals named after made-up animals, Whoops just noticed this. Sure, why not

Animals named after made-up animals? Well, I guess the first one that has to be mentioned is Unicorn Tang (Sorry I couldn’t post an iNat link; the site is down for maintenance at the moment.)

Well I have not confirmed this, but have often thought about it: Protea nerifolia is named after Nerium oleander which in turn is named after the wild olive, Olea. All of these plants have similar looking leaves.

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are obviously not dogs, they’re ground squirrels. Although I’ve run into people who were surprised to learn they are squirrels, perhaps in part due to the common name (but I’m not sure what kind of mammal these folks thought they were – maybe rats?). The scientific name …

[image] jnstuart: The scientific name translates as “dog mouse” – which they are neither. On that note, Ailurus is the genus of red panda, but ailurophobia is the fear of cats.

Zebra Jumping Spiders . There’s also a series of wolf spider genera which are named after mammalian predators, except mangled into rhyming with Lycosa: Genus Ancient Greek English Lycosa lycosa wolf Arctosa arctos bear Alopecosa alopex fox Pardosa pardos leopard Tigrosa tigris tiger …

There are around 120 different groups and/or species of birds with “official” English common names that reference other birds (even more when including colloquial and/or rarely-used names), and around 50 more referencing non-bird animals. A few cases exist where two distantly-related bird taxa have …

Organisms named after other organisms

Nature Talk

Topic		Replies	Views
Fun species named after other species Nature Talk	31	1115	February 12, 2026
Great, funny, or weird species names in other languages Nature Talk	38	15735	October 18, 2020
Funny, long, or just plain weird animal names Nature Talk mostly-humor , fun , common-names	940	80952	July 18, 2026
Silly names that are actually in use for animals Nature Talk common-names , silliness	65	76161	April 24, 2020
What are some nature related nicknames you’ve come up with? Nature Talk question , fun , common-names	44	15394	September 11, 2022

Organisms named after other organisms

Related topics