Your favorite scientific names of plants/animals

In My Humble Opinion
1

My personal favorite is** Upupu epops,** the beautiful Hoopoe, one of the most striking birds of the non-tropical world. Sounds like a refrain by vocalists in a Speakeasy combo.

Walt Kelly, in the comic strip “Pogo”, used Esox as an exclamation, which is a genus of northern pike.

Many genera have a nominative species, where the names are repeated, like Grus grus, the common Crane, or Pica pica, the common Magpie.

The longest name is Bracyurupuskkyodermatogammarus greivlingwmnemnotus, a Russian brine shrimp

The shortest is** Ia io**, The Great Evening Bat. a fairly common bat of the Southeast Asian highlands.

2

Strigiphilus garylarsoni.
A biting louse found on owls.

3

My Jethro Tull coreopsis. I bought it the minute I saw the ID tag.

Doing some research, the plant was most likely named after this man, not the rock band.

Not sure if this is the official scientific name, but I love it.

4

My favorite of this type is Gorilla gorilla, or Gorilla gorilla gorilla–in case you missed what that big ape might be the first time around.

5

Damn, scooped.

Okay then, Mephitis mephitis (offensive stench x 2).

6

I have always been fond of Macracanthorhyncus hirudinaceous, an intestinal worm of swine. Though I shall never need to, I think I can still pronounce it, spell it, and identify the eggs under a microscope.

7

cannabis sativa has always had a nice ring to it.

8

I’ll add Cannabis indica.

Oh, and the cardinal: Cardinalis cardinalis.

And the Blue Headed Parrot (with red vent feathers), aptly named: Pionus menstruus.

9

Boa constrictor has a certain something.

Also Ailuropoda melanoleuca–the black and white catfooted creature also known as the panda.

And the atrocious pouch-saber Thylacosmilus atrox. Yes, this was a giant marsupial sabertooth from South America.

Thylacoleo carnifex is pretty cool, for a butchering pouch-lion.

10

Mine is Callinectes sapidus(from the Greek calli- = “beautiful”, nectes = “swimmer”, and Latin sapidus = “savory”), the Atlantic blue crab.

11

For the repeated ones, I like Gulo gulo for the wolverine. Gulo being Latin for “glutton”

One of my favorites was ruined, Poecilognathus relativitae was originally Phthyria relativitae. :wink:

12

I’ll raise you one Rattus rattus.

I also kinda like the Hyracotherium, because it doesn’t sound like a tiny horse, it sounds like a hothouse flower.

13

In a similar vein, the Eurasian Wren is Troglodytes troglodytes, and the Northern Wren is Troglodytes troglodytes troglodytes.

I also like Falco subbuteo, the Hobby, which leant its name to the table football game after the designer was unable to call the game “Hobby”.

14

Trinomial nomenclature is the best! I’m going to add Bison bison bison.

I also like Mantis religiosa for the praying mantis.

15

And also Mustela putorius furo, the domestic ferret. It means “stinky weasel mouse thief.”

16

And yet all three of you left off badger, badger, badger. :smiley:

17

There’s this genus name I kind of like…

18

You could specify lest someone goes barking up the wrong tree.

19

The Puget Sound area is lousy with Big Leaf Maples. Any hillside too steep for building on is covered with 'em. They’d cover many other areas if man gave 'em a chance. In the botanical world, they’re known as acer acer.

Alces alces is the largest of the of the deer family, the moose!

Whenever I see a robin (American) pooping, I think turdus migratorius. Heh! It’s got turd in it’s name!

20

Man, I don’t know too many Latin names offhand, except I guess dinosaurs.

I’ll go with Roadrunnerus digestus.