Noooo!!!
@fffffffff @fluffyinca This is the fly that made all the mess: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-is-your-favorite-lifer-from-this-week/24219/343?u=elpatitojuan2
Update: She never guessed and I had to tell her what it was.
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Thereâs quite an infamous error on a book about bees. I read somewhere that the author was rather horrified when they discovered that the publisher had unilaterally changed the cover illustration before printing the first edition, or something like thatâŚ
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No way! Thatâs a fly!
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Tardigrades are little known and underrated. Also in n Australia where I live there are lots of unique and strange animals but I find even my compatriots have generally never heard Phascogales. these are also known as tuans, wambengers or mousesacks. I promise am not making these words up
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I used to think Pokemon was a Jamacian proctologist
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â⌠but it is just a flower!â as a response to my excitement about rare orchids.
Sometimes you have to be grateful for at least this level of identification, I suppose âŚ
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For our neighbors in Mexico-City every butterfly was a âmonarcaâ. They were surprised that there are actually many different butterflies in Mexico.
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Had a trip with a driver and afterwards made a custom list of what he had names for vs. what it actually was:
Rook â Grey Starling
Tit â East. Yellow Wagtail
Gull â Stilt
Duck â Great Grebe, Coot
Mallard â Gadwall, Eastern Spot-billed Duck, any duck
Snipe â Greenshank
And also Water Deer was called either a Roe Deer or a goat, I get the second, but not the first name.
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Oh thatâs suuper true, I live in Mexico and EVERY orange butterfly is called ââmonarcaââ.
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Aaaaah, Iâve had toor guides calling a grey hawk ââperegrine falconââ, and Yucatan jays as ââblue jaysââ.
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No, she never found out the fly family and I had to tell her.
I thought this wasnât a very serious topic until I was recently told that all toads are male and all frogs are female, as well as they both are reptiles 
.
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When I was young, I was surprised to find out that turtles are not amphibians.
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Many people believe that in fact.
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Oh, poor authors! Wouldnât it make you cringe.
It reminds me of newspaper articles where journalists summarise what they think an expert has said, but due to their ignorance of the subject they get it very wrong.
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If I were the author I would get a panic attack.
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Very recently I saw in the news about a bat species that was discovered to mimic the buzz of a hornet. Everything was ok until they introduced a video of a clumsy vampire bat crawling around.
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recently i was giving a brief presentation about reptiles and i showed a picture of a green anole (anolis carolinensis) and two ladies there were surprised to learn the name of it! i live in the southeastern united states, there are green anoles everywhere. they do great in urbanized areas, they are typically bright green, they are large enough to be seen, and they bask very prominently on walls and posts and things. not to mention the fact that theyâre as common as all get outâi see at least a green anole a day in the warmer months, even if i donât go anywhere! both of the ladies acknowledged they see âthose little green lizardsâ all the time, they just had no idea what they were. i reckon it just surprised me that someone could see a very obvious creature all the time and not even google it! bless their hearts, they were real sweet about learning more about reptiles and they loved seeing my rescued captive common leopard gecko, they just needed someone to start them off on learning more about the world around them. most people donât have any particular hatred for nature, they just werenât raised in a way that led them to be curious about the life around them beyond humans and cats and dogs and therefore never do much in the way of seeking out new information.
it is common here, too, for turkey vultures (cathartes aura) to be called âbuzzardsâ and for people to be completely unaware that there are other names for vultures, let alone the fact that we have two different species around here. vultures are a crucial part of our ecosystems, they are thankfully common, and they are rather distinctive because they are large dark birds, which makes it seem like people would know things about them. theyâre not dirty birds nor will they try to carry your dog away, theyâre just waiting around for a carrion supper. donât shoot them please.
snakes are a whole beast of their own. many people in these parts will have a very strong fear of snakes but know nothing about them at all. they canât identify any of them (everything is a deadly âpoisonousâ copperhead lol) and donât understand any of the things driving the behaviors of snakes. hands-on experiences with calm snakes alongside some simple information about them (âthis is a corn snake, he is not venomous, he eats rodents, he is on your driveway because he must sit in the sun to warm up and he didnât run away because heâs just as full as a tick and would rather nap! i am going to move him to the side now, you can pet him if youâd like and see that he is smooth and not slimyâ) goes a long way in helping people respect them more. most people just donât have any real information, donât know where to find information, and donât have any reason to believe they should seek new information out because they donât see how it affects their lives.
i wish it was standard for kids in school to learn about common plants and animals in the area because so many people are quite willing to support conservation efforts once they learn anything about the natural world around them.
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always the stock media of a totally different species! every reptile news story around here has a picture of a ball/royal python, bearded dragon, or copperhead (agkistrodon not austrelaps). never mind what actual reptile the story is meant to be about lol
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