English Names

[Chris Durden]

>Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 15:13:47 -0500
>To: venters at iinteralpha.co.uk
>From: Chris Durden <drdn at mail.utexas.edu>
>Subject: Re: English Names
>In-Reply-To: <01beae6e$49368d20$18e11ac3 at e5q5n1>
>References: <19990608145514Z27368-9902+11752 at mail.compusmart.ab.ca>
>
>At 05:43 PM 1999:06:10 GMT, you wrote:
>>John Acorn wrote in article 
>>> Butter-folks,
>>> 
>>> I get the feeling that we are acheiving something here.  Let's keep it
>>> going, and see what progress we can instigate.
>>> 
>>> Chris Durden has suggested that "we need an open forum for a
>>standardization
>>> of vulgar names."  
>>
>>I 'm not trying to invoke one-upmanship here, but as someone who has
>>discovered two species of butterfly new to science......when it comes to
>>the specific latin name..... I'll call them what I want!......and I'll also
>>give them a common name if I want! Why should you all vote on the issue?
>>What was the original common name the first collector/describer called
>>them? if he had no common name what was the first recorded common name used
>>by others? Lets all use this as a rule of thumb! I personally prefer Latin
>>names that we can all identify with!
>>Nigel
>>
>>
>
>  Yes I, as a discoverer of three new butterfly species (that I am aware
of) agree completely with your points, but a public forum is needed to
determine which common name subsequently applied to a species, often by
someone who has never seen it live in habitat (at the request of the editor
of his book) should be used.
>  I would like to see some sort of consistency in common naming, based on
1. folk use, 2. what the discoverer called it, 3. what the student of its
life and habits wants to call it, 4. what most people who observe it want
tocall it - rather than the whim of "the great man" at a distance
(figurative as well as spatial).
>.........Chris Durden