Cephalopodcast

Mark Isaak’s delightful site gathers together evidence of the perverse humor that lurks within many taxonomists.

Scientific names of organisms are not usually known for their entertainment value. They are indispensable for clarity in communication, but most people skip over them with barely a glance. Here I collect those names that are worth a second look.

A mere sampling of this trove of wonders:

• Abra cadabra (Eames & Wilkins) 1957 (clam) Now, alas, in the genus Theora.
• Aha ha Menke, 1988 (sphecid)
• Ittibittium Houbrick, 1993 (mollusc) These are smaller than molluscs of the genus Bittium.
• Notnops, Taintnops, Tisentnops Platnick, 1994 (caponiid spiders) These Chilean spiders were originally placed in the genus Nops, but Platnick separated them into these new genera when he reexamined them.
• Ptomaspis, Dikenaspis, Ariaspis (Devonian armored jawless fish) Remove the “-aspis” to see the pun.
• Vini vidivici Steadman & Zarriello, 1987 (a recently extinct parrot from the Marquesas Islands) The genus Vini has been in use since 1831.

I am sure it’s in there somewhere, but one of my favorites is the Jackknife fish (Equetus lanceolatus). There is also the recent classification of several slime-mold beetles named after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and another beetle after Darth Vader. Of course some folks argue that a little less frivolity and a little more serious abstraction is needed in regards to classification.

See also:

• Funny or Curious Zoological Names, Arnold S. Menke
• Curious Scientific Names, Doug Yanega
• Ba Humbugi! Let’s Nameus That Speciesus, New York Times
• The Barcode of Life takes flight

UPDATE: This just in from the folks over at TONMO:

The scientific name for the wonderpus is Wonderpus photogenicus From work that will soon be published by Hochberg, Norman, Finn.