Common Names please?

[Kenelm Philip]

	I have watched with some interest as the common name issue became
somewhat contentious on this list. My interest in butterflies dates back
to 1938--and essentially everyone I talked with about butterflies from
that time until a few years ago used scientific names as a matter of
course. Some of the true vernacular common names (like 'Monarch' and
'Mourning Cloak') were used in casual conversation, but I have seldom
heard anyone actually using the so-called 'common names' for North
American arctic butterflies in conversation.

	I was aware that in the UK the common names were used more often
than the scientific names by many butterfly enthusiasts. I was also aware
that birdwatchers in the US use common names--and that with birdwatchers
moving into butterfly watching there would be pressure to adopt a similar
system in butterflies. I have been told that there is now  a rule being
imposed by publishers of field guides that all species _must_ have common
names--which has led to some on-the-spot coining of 'common' names. 

	I was not, howwver, prepared for the degree of acrimony that has
sometimes appeared regarding this issue. The use of scientific names
has been denounced as being practiced by old fogies (of which I guess I'm
one), elitists, etc. And the idea of having to learn a few hundred Latin
names, for those working on their local fauna, has been dismissed as much
too difficult to entertain.

	Just today, David Albaugh said:

> This list is for everyone and as a result everyone should be able to enjoy
> it by knowing what people are talking about.
                                                                                
	So here are a few comments from a long-time devotee of butterflies:

1) This list is indeed for everyone--including numerous people from other
countries than the US, Canada, or the UK. If you are posting a note to be
read by other people in your country, and no one else, use common names to
your heart's content. If you have _any_ interest in someone from another
country than your own reading your posting, you simply have to include
scientific names. I can imagine the anguished screams that that would go
up if colleagues in Finland, Russia, or Belgium began using their own
common names in all their postings! Scientific names are truly
international.
I have spent four summers collecting butterflies in NE Russia--and you'd
better believe that both I and the Russians used scientific names in con-
versation! (I did learn that 'Traurnitsa' is the Russian for 'Mourning
Cloak'.)

2) If you want to add the common name in your own country to your posting.
by all means do so. I have tried to do this on most of my postings. But
no one is under any obligation to include common names for _other_ countries
in their postings. People in the US should not expect someone in Denmark
(or the UK) to talk about 'Mourning Cloaks'.

3) Most of us come to this field ignorant of both scientific _and_ common
names of most species of butterflies. If we are as interested in butter-
flies as we seem to be, is it too much trouble to learn both for the limited
fauna that we normally encounter? Except for people in the southern US,
or those in the arctic, most of us are dealing with from 150 to 300 species
--not an insuperable problem. I do not use common names myself in my work--
but I have a copy of two common name lists on hand so I can look them up if
needed. Both of these also give scientific names.

4) If any of you have an interest in exploring the published literature on
your species of interest, you should try to learn (or at least acquire a
checklist/catalogue of) the scientific names. A scientific name is an
index to the literature on that species. Yes, they can change with time,
as taxonomists do their evil deeds with nomenclature. But common names
can change too. And good catalogues will tell you about the older names.

5) There is nothing inherently difficult about scientific names. Sometimes
they are shorter than the common name. They are unfamiliar--but so are
most common names to a beginner. By learning them you broaden your horizons
and improve your ability to learn more about butterflies.

6) Anyone whose interest in butterflies spreads to include the Holarctic
region is going to _have_ to learn the scientific names.

7) This is not an elitist conspiracy to keep people from knowing what's
being talked about. Even the latest butterfly field guides (as the Opler
revision of the Peterson Guide to Eastern Butterflies) includes scientific
names along with common names. The information is available to all.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu