And what is in a name?

[Patrick Foley]

Martin,

Thanks to your use of the scientific name Spermophilus, we can recognize the
genus of ground squirrels rather than confuse your animals with the more
distantly related pocket gophers of the Geomyidae. Sometimes the utmost clarity
(given that the taxonomists may be having a war over some names -- consider the
new Jepson manual plant names in California) is obtained by giving scientific
and common names together with locality and distinguishing features.

As might often be said on this list, there is no need to burn anyone at the
stake for the use of scientific or common names. But if you want to communicate,
the more clarity, the better.

Patrick Foley
patfoley at csus.edu

cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca wrote:

> I was given yesterday a report done on nest predators of the ducks of an
> area on the open prairie.  A progress report done by a M.Sc. candidate.
> Used statistics to prove his arguments and named the egg eating mammals in
> Latin.
>
> One of them animals  we call locally The Gopher.  Now there are gophers and
> there are gophers.  According to the soon to be learned gentleman, the
> gopher that was eating the birds' eggs was Spermophilus franklinii - a bushy
> tailed beast with a gray face.  I was astonished that the gopher that I
> loved to hate and saw all the time running around on the open plains never
> looked gray-faced before and never appeared to have a bushy tail.  My
> gopher - the one I love to hate - in smart Latin talk is known as
> Spermophilus richardsonii.  In local argot that other one, Spermophilus
> franklinii, is known as The Grey Gopher.
>
> I like descriptive names like Mourning Dove named because of its plaintive
> cooing. Or Mourning Cloak Butterfly because its folded wing on a twig looks
> like a shroud.  Or rattlesnake.  It concentrates the mind.
>
> And so should it be with butterfly names.  They should describe and
> elucidate as well as be standardized.
>
> Martin Bailey,
>
> cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca
> phone/fax   306 842-8936
>
> 102   1833 Coteau Avenue,
> Weyburn, SK., Canada.
> S4H 2X3
>
>
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