Culture guffaws: Latin liberties and trends in taxonomy

You have to laugh. There is a ground beetle named Agra cadabra and a fly from Florida called Pieza rhea … Latin names have long been the bedrock of scientific taxonomy (even though plenty of them are Greek) but these days those languages are rarely taught, so new discoveries have names drawn from a far wider catchment. Three newly discovered species of the beetle genus Binburrum have been named Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos after three legendary birds, all Pokémon characters. Another newly discovered beetle of the genus Demyrsus has been named Digimon, after a well-known Japanese TV anime cartoon.

Researchers these days are raised on fantasy fiction instead of the classics, so several young scientists have named their new discoveries after characters in the novels by JRR Tolkein. Much publicity was given to a newly discovered orange butterfly from SE Asia, with characteristic eyespots on the hindwings. The taxonomists have decided to name this new genus Saurona, from the fiery-eyed monster Sauron, in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien wrote: “The Eye of Sauron was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.”

For all the media fuss, they were not the first to have the idea. There is already a deep-water shark, Gollum attenuatus, a weevil named Macrostyphlus gandalf (I am sure that should be Gandalfii) and the Hairy-footed Moss Forest Blossom Bat Syconycteris hobbit. Indeed, using Tolkien characters in scientific nomenclature is almost common practice. The Eye of Sauron has previously been used to name the star system HR 4796A and has even been employed to label an ancient undersea volcano discovered near Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

There is already a deep-water shark, Gollum attenuatus, a weevil named Macrostyphlus gandalf … and the Hairy-footed Moss Forest Blossom Bat Syconycteris hobbit

Some traditional Latin names can raise a smile, like the fungus Phallus impudicus (“impudent penis”) which grows looking like a willie in the woods, or birds of the genus Turdus. These are blackbirds and their allies, and the name comes from the Latin for ‘thrush’. 

Then there is Bugeranus, a tall and majestic crane from the Greek words bous (ox) and geranus (crane). Familiarity with popular television gave a fungus in the family Boletaceae the name Spongiforma squarepantsii.

The German biologist Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Leopold Fuckel has several species named after him, though I won’t be listing any of those. The longest taxonomic name in the world is Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides, a soldier fly. Not many people have studied this species. I can see why.

Then there is the curious case of Papilio ecclipsis, the blue-eyed brimstone butterfly. In 1702 a specimen of this unusual insect was sent to James Petiver, an expert entomologist, by a collector named William Charlton. That same year Petiver included an engraving of it in his book on natural history entitled Gazophylacium naturae et artis.  He wrote: “It exactly resembles our English Brimstone Butterfly were it not for those black Spots, and apparent blue Moons in the lower wings”. He added: “This is the only one I have seen.” The butterfly was included by the father of taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, in his 1763 book Centuria Insectorum Rariorum. Eventually, the entire collection was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane and donated to the nation as what became the Natural History Museum.

But the specimen was a fake. The markings had been drawn onto a genuine brimstone butterfly as a joke. It took the eagle eye of the Danish entomologist Johann Fabricius to spot the deception when he examined the collections in 1793. Fabricius wrote that the butterfly had been “artificially spotted”, with the markings painted on by a hoaxer. The keeper of the collections, Edward Whitaker Gray, was so incensed he stamped on the specimen and destroyed it. Yet two remain; they are thought to be exact replicas and are held at the Linnean Society of London where they are brought out to amuse visiting taxonomists.

Meanwhile, the quest for new names continues unabated. One spectacular frog, recently discovered in the forests of Ecuador, was named to commemorate our monarch’s continuing interest in natural history and conservation. It was called Hyloscirtus princecharlesi. Already it is history.  

Pics: Bridal veil mushroom Phallus indusiatus, a member of the stinkhorn family (Ali Burhan); Juvenile song thrush Turdus philomelos (Anna Karp)