There’s a lot of great mycology content here on the forum! Here is one post that comes to mind:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/laymans-guide-to-fungus-orders-families/46181/4
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Amazing photo! Welcome to the forum!
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First one that comes to mind.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/285746275
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I wish.
I’m loving everyone’s devilish observations!
Our reflections on human nature connect nicely to the theme, because our tendency to name things like Devil’s Walkingstick Aralia spinosa might say more about human nature than they say about the organism!
However, to keep the thread focused on sharing observations, rather than drifting into a broad discussion of human nature, what other “devilish” species have you observed?
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Sometimes known as the Devil’s horse! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/340089561
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I just realized that we have had a bias for English in this thread (“devil” in the common name), but we have been ignoring Greek and Latin in the scientific names! I think it might be διάβολος in Greek (diabolos), and Diabolus as the Latinized form of the word, as well as many variations of those two.
Tagging @phma, as I know Pierre loves language learning.
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Peter @pmeisenheimer, that’s impressive global coverage! Cuba, Trinidad, Namibia . . .
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P. Lucifer? Really?? I love these guys!! I see them all the time in the summer! I didn’t know that their name was devilish!
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I am sure others will chime in, as some forum users speak Latin, but I think Lucifer means light-bringer. Versions of this name are old (thousands of years old) names for the planet Venus, whose thick clouds reflect sunlight, which makes it the brightest object in the night sky at certain times.
Venus is not always visible, so when it was not visible (or barely visible), many cultures came up with an idea about “a star that fell from heaven”.
Over time, with the twists and turns of various authors of religious texts, the name came to be associated with The Devil, in the sense of a fallen angel who was cast out of heaven.
A scientific name containing Lucifer is a perfect fit for this thread!
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Nobody has added a Tasmanian Devil yet? Here’s a recent photo, not in the wild, but at a wildlife park in Tasmania: www.inaturalist.org/observations/338614301
and another observation of the sad state of too much roadkill from a bicycle trip there 12 years ago: www.inaturalist.org/observations/554271
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A few of my favorites that i’ve seen:
Lucifer Hummingbird (Calothorax lucifer) - This was also my 666th bird species (diabolical!)
Devil’s Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) Latin name is diabolical, common is descriptive
Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridus) - really good latin name
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Thanks for these great shares, Wendy! @wendy5
Wendy’s first observation is captive, from a place called East Coast Natureworld. East Coast Natureworld is located near Bicheno, Tasmania, on . . . the east coast of Tasmania!
Natureworld says it has, “The best Tassie Devil experience in Tasmania”
In the first observation that Wendy shared, she notes that, “Natureworld does a wonderful job protecting Tasmanian Devils from being exposed through group feeding to the deadly cancer that has killed so many.”
I don’t follow the pathology of Australian mammals, so if you’re out of the loop, like I am, you can read about this horrific problem (DFTD) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease
I guess that counts as another devilish observation! (unfortunately)
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/58/6/1043/5106665
A remarkable feature of DFTD (DFT1) is that the cancer cell itself is transmitted between unrelated devils as an infectious “pathogen”
Wendy, I also appreciate all of your work as a curator. I’m not too familiar with how to search curatorial actions, but I do see a lot of curators complaining here on the forum that many curators have never curated anything, and it looks like you’re a fairly active curator. Thank you for your service!
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Thank you, Adam. I appreciate the links you included about Tasmanian Devils, really wonderful animals! Here’s a photo of the group feeding, which is the cause of spreading the cancer.
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My very weevil and and very diabolical observations, if that counts.
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Oh my gosh, Vasily @vreinkymov, weevils! That would be an endless source of observations!
Nice job on the pun! I know a lot of forum users like the xkcd cartoon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd
I wondered if there was a “punny” one I could share. It turns out there is a whole Wiki for xkcd puns, complete with explanations! https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Puns
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