Common names

Niklas Wahlberg niklas.wahlberg at helsinki.fi
Wed Jun 2 01:28:37 EDT 1999


Once again this thread starts. Being a Finn I don't really care how many
names you english speakers make up for butterfly (and other organisms)
species. How would you react if I started talking about the suruvaippa I
saw yesterday? Or perhaps the kaaliperhonen, everybody knows that, it's a
common pest of cabbage gardens... (the two species mentioned are Nymphalis
antiopa and Pieris brassicae, respectively) 
    The point is that latin names give the _rest of the world_ a better
idea of what you are talking about. I hope that systematic classifications
start stabilizing little by little. At least the concept of phylogenetical
systematics is gaining ground.

Cheers,
Niklas

At 21:42 1.6.1999 -0400, Michael Gochfeld wrote:
>I would argue that it isn't intrinsically more difficult to memorize the 
>scientific name of this butterfly than to learn its common name. Some 
>scientific names are daunting, but some common names are complex as 
>well. 
>
>But it is a flaw to assume that the scientific names are "better".  For 
>example, looking at papers published a hundred years ago in northeastern 
>U.S. I found that more of the common than scientific names had remained 
>unchanged.  Thus at any point in time a scientific name may be the same 
>in North America and Europe, but over time the meddling in systematics 
>is reflected in dramatic changes in our understanding of species 
>concepts, generic relationships, etc. Particularly at the generic level 
>where there don't seem to be many "rules", it can be a free-for all.  
>Have our European colleagues kept up to date on our realignment of 
>American hairstreaks at the generic level????
>
>So it may be easier to learn two common names than to keep track of the 
>evolving scientific names. ----if "easier" is a virtue.
>
>M. Gochfeld
>
>
_________________________________________________________________________

   Niklas Wahlberg                          
   Department of Ecology and Systematics    
   Division of Population Biology           
   PO Box 17 (Arkadiankatu 7)               
   00014 University of Helsinki
   Finland                                                         
   p. +358-9-191 7378, fax +358-9-191 7301  
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