life's like this - avianto's journal

… is actually a name for fossil mythicmyiid (that’s another word for moth) from Dominican amber.

When it comes to the Latin name of the species, scientist could be fun and wacky too. There are lots of Latin scientific name that actually doesn’t sound so “scientific” at all. Some are funny, wacky or just plain weird.

Some noteworthy are:

• Dissup irae, hard-to-see fossil eremochaetid fly.
• Vampyroteuthis infernalis, squid, translated to “Vampire squid from Hell”.
• Draculoides bramstokeri, spider, from Dracula’s author Bram Stoker.
• Metallichneumon neurospatarchus, ichneumonid wasp, “Neurospatarchus” translates as “Master of Puppets”.
• Dicrotendipes thanatogratus, chironomid aka. midge, “Thanatos” means death and “gratus” means grateful. Yes, it’s Grateful Dead.
• Galaxias gollumoides, fresh-water fish, named after Gollum because it has large eyes and was found in a swamp.
• Mantis religiosa, praying mantis.
• Hornia, meloid beetle, I have nothing to say.

This list coming from Mark Isaak’s fabulous website, Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature. The entry and the link is courtesy from reading Ottawa Citizen this morning.

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