terminology: Was US standardized name reference
Kevin J Caley
kevin.caley at nottingham.ac.uk
Fri Jul 6 12:00:35 EDT 2001
"Stanley A. Gorodenski" wrote:
> I was myself perplexed by the ambiguity of the abbreviation LBJ, "little
> brown job", and how anyone could defend this naming convention.
My tuppence-worth :-
Preiously I've only seen LBJ used (very widely) among birders - basically any
'enigmatic' (=characterless, it seems!) bird that proves to be extremely
difficult to identify on first glance. So, now it's entered the butterflying
world? Could that be due to the huge numbers of birders who are getting
bored with birds now turning to the 'flying flowers', as is also happening in
the UK? I have recently heard the phrases 'stonking' and 'griped' being
applied to butterfly viewing, which are also originally birding terms.
Interesting......
PS: Scientific names will never go out of fashion, I think, as long as we
(humans) use more than one language to communicate with - very important when
communicating at conferences! (A Mourning Cloak.... What's that - looks like
a Camberwell Beauty to me......oh Nymphalis antiopa. It's both, then.)
Kevin
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