And Canis latrans itself is one of my favorites - it translates to “talking dog”.
Have you ever heard a pack of coyotes out in the wild? They sound exactly like a pack of humans throwing a raucous party.
Some mention should be made in this thread of the species for which the common name is the scientific name, such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Boa constrictor.
Amorphophallus titanum, commonly known as the corpse flower (and coincidentally my nom-de-porn back during the VHS era. AKA “the Virtuoso of Hurt-You-Oh-So.”)
I used to sell dawn redwoods (and everything else found in a large nursery).
Cretapsara athanata , which means “the immortal Cretaceous spirit of clouds and water.
I always liked phallus impudicus, indecent penis, the scientific name for the common stinkhorn. Mus musculus sounds like it should be able to beat you up and shake you down for your lunch money, but it’s just the common house mouse. But my favorite might be dracorex hogwartsia, the dragon king of Hogwarts, a dinosaur (pachycephalosaur) whose skull, well, looks like this:
I grow Amorphophallus konjac, which is not as massive as A. titanum but has a cooler name.
It’s always an event when it blooms in spring and the sweet perfume of rotting flesh attracts pollinating flies.
The Daisya Obriani and Theognete Maturini, two weevils named after the author and one main character of the Aubrey-Maturin series of historical fiction. Though I don’t know which is the lesser of two weevils.
I can’t believe I mentioned the cardinal and not the anhinga!
Anhinga anhinga the anhinga.
There is also a pathogenic enteric bacterial organism that was given its species name in recognition of the microbiologist who discovered and studied the species.
I won’t give specifics because he was working at a University in Europe, without a way to bring the organism back to the US for study. So he ate some. He returned to the US, was very ill, and cultured the organism from his profuse diarrhea.
That reminds me of the Australian doctors who won a Nobel for discovering Helicobacter pylori and its connection with gastritis and stomach ulcers:
“To demonstrate H. pylori caused gastritis and was not merely a bystander, [Barry] Marshall drank a beaker of H. pylori culture. He became ill with nausea and vomiting several days later. An endoscopy 10 days after inoculation revealed signs of gastritis and the presence of H. pylori . These results suggested H. pylori was the causative agent. Marshall and [Robin] Warren went on to demonstrate antibiotics are effective in the treatment of many cases of gastritis.”
Oh, well, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, then.
Sticking with birds with yellow on their heads, Amazon’s ochrocephala. Is the yellow crowned Amazon parrot.
It’s upsetting to relate, but we should not overlook Ilex vomitoria* (yaupon holly) and Chrysothamnus nauseosus (rabbitbrush).
*a widely grown shrub, especially in the southeastern U.S. Apparently the name is something of a misnomer - an infusion of the plant’s leaves contains caffeine and theobromine, but barfing is thought to be a common effect only if you overindulge on an empty stomach.