common names

[Liz Day]

 >I remember reading that .... Monarch - Danaus plexippus has had about 5 
different scientific names...

*grin*   If true, it's been making people crabby for a long time:

In _Flowers and Insects_ (1928), Charles Robertson wrote:
"[species lists] .... I did not care to rewrite and rearrange them... After 
changing _Danais archippus_ to _Anosia plexippus_ it is a little tiresome 
to change it back to its former name, and then to _Danaus_..... The older 
names usually have more important relation to anthecological 
literature.  Authors will have to use them whether they like them or 
not."  (Yikes!)

Liz

-------------------------------------------------------------
Liz Day
Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA  (40 N, ~86 W)
USDA zone 5b.  Winters ~20F, summers ~85F.  Formerly temperate deciduous 
forest.
daylight at kiva.net
www.kiva.net/~daylight



 
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