Common Names please?

[Kenelm Philip]

> Could folks please please use common names just a little bit?

Having recently made a post using scientific names only, here's the list
for people in the US:

_Clossiana titania_ (Titania fritillary)*
_Polygonia faunus_ (Green Comma)
_Nymphalis antiopa_ (Mourning Cloak)

* Some Canadian taxonomists lump _C. titania_ with _C. chariclea_ (Arctic
Fritillary), just to make things more interesting. I find this difficult
to accept, since the two taxa fly together in Interior Alaska in taiga
habitat, _titania_ every summer, and _chariclea_ in odd-numbered summers.

	Note that I made that posting in response to reports from the UK
and Denmark about low numbers of _N. antiopa_ this fall, so I _had_ to
use scientific names. The U.S. common names convey little or no information
in Europe. (Nor can we expect Europeans to add U.S. common names to their
postings!)

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu