Bird names (and other names too!)

[Michael Gochfeld]

This is ever so much more fun than doing the work I'm supposed to do to meet a deadline. 

First of all it WAS Parus atricapillus (Black-capped Chickadee), but it isn't anymore. What's more I've noted that this winter their plumage has changed, perhaps in recongition of the name change.  The ones at my feeder this winter had white patches on their back and shoulders. 

If I read Euploea, I would NOT know that I was reading about a butterfly, whereas if I read about a Crow, I might know that it was a butterfly or a bird since I've been to Southeast Asia.  If I read about Danaines, I might know that it is a Milkweed Butterfly.  But no matter what area of knowledge, there will always be some people who are more widely read and more knowledgable and will recognize the names of things that are unfamiliar to most people.  

I think that the point of emphasizing "common" names was to make the butterflies more "accessible" to people with only a passing interest in the outdoors. Reliance on scientific names was looked at as elitist. It's OK to be elitist, but doesn't really enhance communication with large numbers of people.  Some readers might not think it's a great idea to have a large number of people suddenly paying attention to butterflies. 

I was brought up in the tradition that scientific names not only should, but could, reflect phylogeny and relationships. I think it's a great idea, but it's also illusory (which helps keep systematists employed, which itself is a great idea). 

I don't know whether molecular genetics will revolutionize the field by providing the final definitive evidence on genetic distance between taxa----but I'll bet that if we had "true" genetic distances, we'd still find it chaotic and confusing. We'd find an infinite spectrum of distances that we would be trying to shoe-horn into our concepts of species, genera, families, etc, by inserting subs, infras, supers, etc---until we were dizzy. 

Nomenclature cannot keep up with systematic knowledge. 

That's my conclusion.  It doesn't mean it isn't fun trying. 

As I write this a Hunter's Butterfly is nectaring outside my window. 

Mike Gochfeld