Scientific vs. common names

[Tony Hoare]

In article <199810062247.SAA06232 at mime4.prodigy.com>, MS LYNN L MONROE
<CRTN55A at prodigy.com> writes
>
>I like the scientific names, too.  To me butterfly names are like Chinese
>names, with the surname (the genus) first, the given name (the species)
>second.  All those butterflies that share the same "surname," the genus,
>are pretty closely related and easier to learn as a group.  Vanessa cardui
>and Vanessa atalanta show this close relationship much better than Painted
>Lady (or Cosmopolitan) and Red Admiral
>
>This relationship is often international.  In Australia we found a
>butterfly called the Meadow Argus which looked pretty familiar.  When we
>saw the scientific name, Junonia villida, we knew why.  It looked a lot
>like our Buckeye, Junonia coenia.  Australia also has a couple of Vanessas
>and even an Everes,the genus of our Eastern Tailed Blue and Western Tailed
>Blue.  In Australia the common name is Tailed Cupid, but in my mind's eye I
>can almost predict what this little butterfly will look like.
>
>Lynn Monroe
>
I do so much agree.  I have had the good fortune to lep in Australia and
the USA as well as my home country of the UK.  I joined NABA early on
and saw the logic behind their attempt to standardise the vernacular
names but was frustrated by the differences between the USA and UK
vernacular names for the same butterfly - Common Branded Skipper (USA)
Silver-spotted Skipper (UK) = Hesperia comma.  If I travel somewhere and
am told that a local speciality is the Green Skipper it does not convey
much of the actual butterfly to me, however Hesperia viridis gives me a
good idea. Likewise Cynthia kershawi will look similar to C. cardui but
will not be "my own" Painted Lady.  In any international forum
scientific names are essential, vernacular names optional.
By way of illustration some Dutch delegates (who spoke excellent
English) started to use Dutch names at a Butterfly Conservation
Symposium by way of protest at the use of English vernacular names.  The
Symposium switched in short order!  Many people who can "get by" in a
foreign language do not have butterfly names in their vocabulary.
You will have noticed that unlike Lynn I have used Cynthia, rather than
Vanessa - sorry it's what I'm used to.....
The scientific names can be a dog too, when there is little agreement on
whether a butterfly is a species or sub-species.  You should see my
notes from the various authorities when trying to put a name to a slide
of a Polygonia species, photographed near Denver this June. 
All the best 
Tony Hoare