Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature:
Etymologies

Eucosma bobana, E. cocana, E. dodana, E. fofana, E. hohana, E. kokana, E. lolana, E. momana, E. popana, E. rorana, E. sosana, E. totana, E. vovana, E. fandana, E. gandana, E. handana, E. kandana, E. mandana, E. nandana, E. randana, E. sandana, E. tandana, E. vandana, E. wandana, E. xandana, E. yandana, E. zandana, E. nomana, E. sonomana, E. vomonana, E. womonana, E. boxeana, E. canariana, E. floridana, E. idahoana, E. miscana, E. subinvicta; Kearfott, 1907 (olethreutid moths)

Hysterosia biscana, H. discana, H. riscana, H. viscana, H. wiscana, H. ziscana, H. foxcana, H. toxcana, H. voxcana, H. zoxcana, H. baracana, H. waracana, H. zaracana, H. bomonana,H. nomonana, H. romonana Kearfott, ~1907 (cochylid moths)

Maruina amada, M. amadora, M. cholita, M. muchacha, M. querida, M. chamaca, M. chamaguita, M. chica, M. dama, M. nina, M. tica, and M. vidamia Hougue, ~1973 (psychodid flies) All these names of Latin American bloodsucking flies are Spanish terms of endearment and diminutives.

Ophiomyia prima, O. secunda, O. tertia, O. quarta, O. quinta, O. sexta, O. septima, O. octava, O. nona, O. undecima, O. duodecima; Spencer, 1969 (Agromyzid flies) Latin for "first", "second", "third", etc. Why no O. decima?

Solpugarda Roewer, 1933

Solpugassa Roewer, 1933

Solpugeira Roewer, 1933

Solpugella Roewer, 1933

Solpugema Roewer, 1933

Solpugopa Roewer, 1933

Solpugorna Roewer, 1933

Solpuguna Roewer, 1933

Solpugyla Roewer, 1933

Solpugelis Roewer, 1934

Solpugiba Roewer, 1934

Solpugista Roewer, 1934 (all solpugids)

Montifringilla theresae

Sylvia nana theresae

Melierax metabates theresae

Erythrospiza githaginea theresae

Alectoris barbata theresae

Scotocerca inquieta theresae

Galerida theklae theresae

Coccothraustes coccothraustes theresae

Riparia rupestris theresae

Oenanthe moesta theresae

Turdus viscivorus theresae

Garrulus glandarius theresae

Emberiza striolata theresae (various birds) These are some of the several species and subspecies of birds named by Col. Richard Meinertzhagen after Theresa Clay, a close "confidante" 33 years younger than himself. [Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 57 (1937) and 59 (1939): 63-69]

Aegrotocatellus Adrian and Edgecombe, 1995 (trilobite) Latin for "sick puppy".

Boselaphus tragocamelus (Pallas) (nilgai, an Indian antelope) This translates to "ox-deer goat-camel"

Brachyanax thelestrephones Evenhuis, 1981 (fly) The name translates from Greek to "little chief nipple twister".

Dziwneono etcetera Dworakowska, 1972 (leafhopper) "Dziwneono" is Polish for "it is strange."

Eucritta melanolimnetes Clack, 1998 (fossil amphibian) Loosely translates as "Creature from the black lagoon" [Nature 394: 66-69].

Fratercula (puffin). The name probably refers to the puffin's plumage, which looks something like a monastic robe; fraterculus means "small brother". However, fratercula is a feminine form, so the name literally means "small (female) brother". Don't ask me why.

Halticosaurus von Huene 1908 (Late Triassic theropod) translates to "leaping lizard!"

Homo diluvii testis Scheuchzer, 1726 translates "Man, a witness to the Flood" because it was thought at the time to be the remains of a man drowned in Noah's Flood. Later it was found to be a fossil salamander and renamed Andrias scheuchzeri. Andrias means "man-image", a relic of the original misinterpretation.

Iris innominata L. Henderson (iris) Translated, this iris's name is "unnamed iris."

Lycoperdon (puffball) Literally, "wolf-fart".

Mabuya perrotetti (Dumeril and Bibron) (skink) "Perrotetti" means "small-breasted dog." There is also Radula perrotetti (liverwort) and Pomadasys peroteti (Cuvier, 1830) (a fish, the parrot grunt).

Megapnosaurus Ivie, Slipinski & Wegrzynowiwicz, 2001 (theropod dinosaur) Translates as "big dead lizard." (The original name for this genus, Syntarsus, was previously taken by a small living beetle. There is some controversy because this genus was renamed by entomologist Mike Ivie after he was unable to reach Raath, who described the dinosaur originally.)

Piseinotecus divae Er. Marcus, 1955 (gastropod) "Piseinotecus" means "I stepped on Teco." Teco was a dog belonging to a diva (or to Prof. Diva Corrêa). One of the Marcuses (Evelyne or Ernst) stepped on the dog on the way to the kitchen in the middle of the night.

Pulchrapollia Dyke & Cooper, 2000 (Lower Eocene parrot) Translates to "Pretty Polly".

Vampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903 (squid relative) "Vampire squid from Hell".

Bufonaria borisbeckeri Parth, 1996 (bursid sea snail) Etymology: "Ich widme die neue Art Boris Becker, dem meines Erachtens größten deutschen Einzelsportler aller Zeiten." [Spixiana 19(1): 129]

Mastophora dizzydeani Eberhard, 1984 (spider) Named after a baseball player. The spider uses a sticky ball on the end of a thread to catch its prey.

Albunea groeningi Boyko, 2002 (sand crab (Crustacea: Anomura: Albuneidae)) named for Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons".

Campsicnemius charliechaplini Evenhuis, 1996 (dolichopodid fly) "Etymology: This species is named in honor of the great silent movie comedian, Charlie Chaplin, because of the curious tendency of this fly to die with its midlegs in a bandy-legged position." [Bishop Mus. Occ. Pap. 0(45):54]

Baeturia laureli and B. hardyi de Boer, 1996 (cicadas)

Garylarsonus (beetle)

Strigiphilus garylarsoni Clayton, ~1989 (owl louse) "I considered this an extreme honor. Besides, I knew no one was going to write and ask to name a new species of swan after me. You have to grab these opportunities when they come along." - Gary Larson

Serratoterga larsoni (Ecuadorian butterfly) also after cartoonist Gary Larson.

Montypythonoides riversleighensis Smith & Plane, 1985 (fossil snake) The genus is no longer valid; this species is now called Morelia riversleighensis.

Sula abbotti costelloi Steadman, Schubel & Pahlavan, 1988 (a subspecies of Abbot's booby, recently extinct)

Effigia okeeffeae Nesbitt 2007. (Archosaur) from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, near where the artist Georgia O'Keeffe lived.

Microchilo elgrecoi Bleszynski, 1966 (crambid moth) After the Spanish painter El Greco. [Acta Zool. Cracoviensia 11: 451]

Microchilo murilloi Bleszynski, 1966 (crambid moth) After the Mexican painter Murillo (Dr. Atl). [Acta Zool. Cracoviensia 11: 451]

Pseudoparamys cezannei Hartenberger, 1987 (Ischyromyidae, extinct rodent)

Raphaelana Girault (wasp)

Pseudocatharylla gioconda Bleszynski, 1964 (crambid moth) "Described from a unique female" and "very distinctive." [Acta Zool. Cracoviensia 11: 683]

Aesopichthys Poplin & Lund, 2000 (fossil actinopterygian fish) Named for Aesop.

Aligheria Girault (wasp) named for Dante Aligheri.

Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei Rich & Vickers-Rich, 2003 (Cretaceous ceratopsian dinosaur from Australia). Named for sci-fi author Arthur C. Clark.

Arthurdactylus conandoylensis Frey & Martill, 1994 (Brazilian pterosaur) Named after Arthur Conan Doyle in honor of his story The Lost World, which is set in jungle similar to where the fossil was found, and in which a living pterosaur is brought back to London.

Draculoides bramstokeri Harvey & Humphreys, 1995 (schizomid) Bram Stoker was the author of Dracula.

Carlyleia Girault, 1916 (eulophid wasp) named for Thomas Carlyle.

Bienosaurus crichtonii, 2000 [nomen nudum] (small biped dinosaur) Named after Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, but not published with a description. Reassigned to B. lufengensis Dong, 2001.

Emersonella Girault, 1916 (eulophid wasp) named for Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Goethaeana shakespearei Girault, 1920 (eulophid wasp) named for Johann Goethe. One species is G. shakespearei.

Podocyrtis goetheana (Haeckel), Riedel and Sanfilippo, 1970 (Eocene diatom)

Keatsia Girault (wasp) named for poet John Keats.

Idiomacromerus longfellowi Girault, 1917 (torymid wasp) Named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Ablerus longfellowi (wasp)

Nabokovia (lycaenid butterfly) Named after Vladimir Nabokov, himself an entomologist who studied butterflies in the same subfamily. See also Names from Fictional Characters for butterfly names derived from Nabokov's writings.

Plato Coddington, 1986 (spider)

Plutarchia Girault, 1925 (eurytomid wasp) named for classical biographer Plutarch.

Richteria Girault, 1920 (mymarid wasp) named for German humorist and novelist Jean Richter.

Sappho Reichenbach, 1849 (hummingbird)

Shakespearia Girault, 1928 (encyrtid wasp)

Legionella shakespearei Verma et al., 1992 (bacterium)

Psephophorus terrypratchetti Köhler, 1995 (Eocene fossil turtle) Terry Pratchett wrote a series of fantasy books set on a world carried on the back of a giant turtle. [J. Royal Soc. N.Z. 25:371]

Thoreauia Girault (wasp) named for Henry David Thoreau.

Beethovena Girault, 1932 (encyrtid wasp)

Mozartella beethoveni Girault, 1926 (encyrtid wasp)

Gnathia beethoveni Paul & Menzies, 1971 (isopod)

Bishopina mozarti Bonaduce, Masoli & Pugliese, 1978 (ostracod)

Fernandocrambus chopinellus Bleszynski, 1967 (crambid moth) [Acta Zool. Cracoviensia 12: 39]

Salinoctomys loschalchalerosorum Mares, Braun, Barquez & Díaz, 2000 (Chalchalero Viscacha rat) "named for the great Argentine folklore group, 'Los Chalchaleros,' in honor of their 52 years singing the traditional music of western Argengina, its habitats, and its history." [Mares et al., 2000. Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech University 203: i+27]

Funkotriplogynium iagobadius Seeman & Walter, 1997 (mite) from Iago, "James" and badius, "brown," named after James Brown, the King of Funk.

Milesdavis Lieberman, 1994 (trilobite) [Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 0(223) 1-176].

Petula Clark, 1971 (tineid)

Mackenziurus johnnyi, M. joeyi, M. deedeei, M. ceejayi Adrian and Edgecombe, 1997 (trilobites) Named after the Ramones.

Avalanchurus simoni and A. garfunkeli Adrain & Edgecombe, 1997 (trilobites)

Avalanchurus lennoni, A. starri Edgecombe & Chatterton, 1993 (trilobites) Named for Beatles John Lennon and Ringo Starr.

Bushiella (Jugaria) beatlesi Rzhavsky, 1993 (Annelida, spirorbid)

Greeffiella beatlei Lorenzen, 1969 (nematode) Lorenzen doesn't state the etymology, but the worm's shagginess suggests a Beatles haircut.

Struszia mccartneyi Edgecombe & Chatterton, 1993 (trilobite) for Paul McCartney.

Elvisaurus Holmes, 1993 [nomen nudum] (Antarctic dinosaur) so called for it's 'pompadour-like' crest. Now Cryolophosaurus.

Preseucoila imallshookupis Buffington, 2004 (gall wasp) The genus is named after Elvis Presley, the specific name for one of his songs.

Cirolana mercuryi N. Bruce, 2004 (East African isopod) Named for Freddy Mercury, lead singer of the rock band Queen, "arguably Zanzibar's most famous popular musician and singer."

Macrocarpaea dies-viridis J.R. Grant, 2007 (gentian) for the punk rock group Green Day. [Harvard Papers in Biology 11: 129.]

Masiakasaurus knopfleri Sampson, 2001 (theropod dinosaur) Named after Dire Straits singer/songwriter Mark Knopfler. Sampson said, "Whenever we played Dire Straits in the quarry, we found more Masiakasaurus, and when we played something else, we didn't." Knopfler replied, "The fact that it's a dinosaur is certainly apt, but I'm happy to report that I'm not in the least bit vicious." ("Masiaka" is Malagasy for "vicious.")

Metallichneumon neurospatarchus Sime and Wahl, 2002 (ichneumonid wasp) "Neurospatarchus" translates as "Master of Puppets," which is the seminal album by the thrash metal band Metallica. The name refers to the larval ichneumonid's manipulation of its host insect.

Dicrotendipes thanatogratus Epler, 1987 (chironomid) From Gk "thanatos", dead, and Latin "gratus", grateful; after the Grateful Dead.

Cryptocercus garciai Burnside, Smith and Kambhampati, 1998 (wood roach) named for Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry Garcia. [WWW J. of Biol. 4-1] (There's also an asteroid named Garcia, shortly after his death.)

Aegrotocatellus jaggeri Adrain & Edgecombe, 1995 (trilobite) for Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. See also the genus etymology.

Anomphalus jaggerius Plas, 1972 (fossil gastropod) [J. of Paleo. 46: 249-260]

Kalloprion kilmisteri Eriksson 2006 (fossil polychaete) Named after Lemmy Kilmister of the heavy metal band Motörhead.

Perirehaedulus richardsi Adrain & Edgecombe, 1995 (trilobite) for Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

Arcticalymene viciousi, A. rotteni, A. jonesi, A. cooki, A. matlocki Adrian and Edgecombe, 1997 (trilobites) for the Sex Pistols. [J. Paleo. 71(4)]

Hyla stingi Kaplan, 1994 (Columbian tree frog) Named after the British rock star Sting in recognition of his work for the rain forest.

Villa manillae Evenhuis, 1993 (bee fly) Inspired by Millie Vanillie. [Idesia 12:19]

Xanthosomnium froesei Sime and Wahl, 2002 (ichneumonid wasp) "Xanthosomnium" is a translation of the synth band Tangerine Dream. The species is "named after Edgar Froese, the founder and continuity behind Tangerine Dream."

Zappa (Roberts), 1989 (goby) "in honour of Frank Zappa for his articulate and sagacious defense of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." [Rec. of Austrl. Museum suppl 11: 53] Murdy, who renamed the genus, also says, "I like his music."

Amaurotoma zappa Plas, 1972 (fossil gastropod) [J. Paleo. 46: 249-260]

Oenonites zappae Eriksson 1997 (fossil polychaete)

Pachygnatha zappa Bosmans and Bosselaers, 1994 (orb-weaver spider) It has a black marking under its abdomen curiously reminiscent (at least to Bosmans and Bosselaers) of Frank Zappa's mustache.

Phialella zappai Boero, 1987 (jellyfish) Named as part of Ferdinando Boero's plan to get to meet Frank Zappa. "There is nothing I'd like better than having a jellyfish named after me" - Frank Zappa. (details) [J. Nat. Hist. 21: 465]

There are also asteroids named "3834 Zappafrank" and "16745 Zappa."

Agra katewinsletae Erwin, 2002 (ground beetle) For actress Kate Winslet, "starlet of the movie Titanic. Her character did not go down with the ship, but we will not be able to say the same for this elegant canopy species, if all the rain forest is converted to pastures." [Zootaxa 119: 1-68.]

Agra liv Erwin, 2002 (carabid) "The first name of the actress Liv Tyler, starlet of the movie, Armageddon. The existence of this species of elegant beetle is dependent upon the rainforest not undergoing an Armageddon ..."

Agra schwarzeneggeri Erwin, 2002 (carabid) "The family name of the actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in reference to the markedly developed (biceps-like) middle femora of the males of this species reminiscent of the actor's physique."

Attenborosaurus Bakker, 1993 (plesiosaur) "in honor of the naturalist and filmmaker David Attenborough, whose childhood fascination with Liassic plesiosaurs sparked a brilliant career in scientific journalism."

Zaglossus attenboroughi Flannery and Groves 1998 (long-beaked echidna from New Guinea) Named after well-known wildlife presenter David Attenborough. It is known from only one specimen collected in 1961 and may now be extinct. [Mammalia, vol. 62]

Avahi cleesei 2005 (woolly lemur) Named for actor/comedian John Cleese, who played a lemur-happy zookeeper in the film Fierce Creatures, hosted a documentary on lemurs, and is concerned with wildlife conservation.

Baru darrowi Willis, Murray and Megirian 1990 (mid-Tertiary fossil crocodile from Australia) Named after Paul Darrow, who played Avon in the British sci-fi series "Blake's 7." [Memoirs of the Queensland Museum vol. 29]

Calponia harrisonfordi Platnick, 1993 (caponiid spider) Named after Harrison Ford in appreciation of his narrating a documentary.

Harryhausenia Boyko, 2004 (fossil sand crab (Crustacea: Anomura: Albuneidae)) for movie animator Ray Harryhausen (7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, etc.).

Pheidole harrisonfordi Wilson, 2002 (ant) Named in recognition of Harrison Ford's involvement (as Vice Chairman) in Conservation International.

Norasaphus monroeae Fortey (trilobite) after Marilyn Monroe; it has an hourglass shaped glabella.

Orsonwelles othello, O. macbeth, O. falstaffius, O. ambersonorum Hormiga, 2002 (giant Hawaiian linyphiid spiders). These species are named after famous Orson Welles roles.

Rostropria garbo Early (diapriid wasp) Described from "a solitary female".

Utahraptor spielbergi Bonar, Lassieur, McCafferty & Voci, ~1992 [nomen nudum] (theropod dinosaur) Named after Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg. The raptors in the movie were larger than any then known, until this raptor was announced the week the movie premiered. Apparently, it was not adequately described in the rush to name it. Reassigned to U. ostrommaysorum Kirkland, Gaston & Burge, 1993.

Bobkabata kabatabobbus Hogans & Benz, 1990 (parasitic copepod) Named after parasitologist Bob Kabata.

Cartwrightia cartwrighti Cartwright, 1967 (scarab beetle) Islas established the genus in 1958 in honor of coleopterist Oscar L. Cartwright, who later named this species for his brother.

Carukia barnesi Southcott, 1967 (jellyfish) Notable because the research that earned Dr. Jack Barnes the honorific also earned him a Darwin Award honorable mention.

Gomphonema lange-bertalotii Reichardt and Gomphonema reichardtii Lange-Bertalot (diatoms) Taxonomists honoring each other within the same genus.

Hoia hoi Avdeev & Kazatchenko, 1986 (parasitic copepod) Named after Ju-Shey Ho.

Navicula austrocollegarum Lange-Bertalot & R.Voigt (diatom) To honor all the austrian colleagues of the author.

Roloffia (Roloffia) roloffi roloffi (Roloff, 1936) (freshwater fish) The fish had this designation only for a while. It was originally Aphyosemion roloffi Roloff 1936, and is now in genus Scriptaphyosemion. [Wochenschrift Aquar.-Terr. 33(25): 387] (Roloff also named Rivulus roloffi after himself [1938, Wochenschrift Aquar.-Terr. 35: 597.)

Archimedes Lesueur, 1842 (bryozoan with a corkscrew support)

Celsia Linnaeus (Mediterranean subshrub) Named after the Celsius to whom the centigrade thermometer is credited, who was also an amateur botanist and a mentor to Linnaeus. In Celsius's original scale, water freezes at 100 and boils at zero. Linnaeus himself was the first to propose the inverted scale that we use today.

Copernicia (palm) After the astronomer Copernicus.

Citrobacter freudi (coliform bacterium)

Cyclocephala freudi Endrödi, 1963 (scarab)

Lepithrix freudi Schein, 1959 (scarab)

Conyza montigena var. fosseyae Beentje, 2002 (Compositae) after Dian Fossey, of gorilla fame, who collected the type specimen.

Haeckeliania Girault, 1912 (trichogrammatid wasp) named for Ernst Haeckel.

Hippocratea (tropical vine) and its family Hippocrateaceae, named after Hippocrates.

Leonardo davincii Bleszynski, 1965 (pyralid moth)

Linnaea borealis Gronovius (twinflower) Linnaeus wrote, "Linnaea . . . is a plant of Lapland, lowly, insignificant, disregarded, flowering but for a brief space -- from Linnaeus who resembles it." It was mock modesty; Linnaeus arranged for the plant to be named for him.

Pastuerella (plague bacterium) Named for French chemist Louis Pasteur.

Rothschildia Grote, 1896 (saturniid moth) According to Steve Jones in Almost Like a Whale (1999), renowned 19th century naturalist Lord Walter Rothschild (founder of the Tring Museum) has 153 insects, 58 birds, 18 mammals, 3 fish, 3 spiders, 2 reptiles, 1 millipede and 1 worm named after him.

Wallacea darwini Hill, 1919 (stratiomyid fly) There are more than 120 species (and 9 genera) named after Darwin. This species is named also after Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discover of the theory of evolution.

Wodyetia bifurcata (foxtail palm) named after Wodyeti, last aboriginal to live in the Melville Range area in Queensland, Australia, and last to hold the traditional native knowledge of the area.

Doronomyrmex pocahontas Buschinger 1979 (ant) Named for Princess Matoaka, precocious daughter of Chief Powhatan who served as a bridge between the Native Americans and the English settlers of Jamestown. She is better known by her father's nickname for her, Pocahontas, which means "little mischievous one." The ant, from Alberta, Canada, is a threatened species.

Agathidium pocahontasae Miller and Wheeler, 2005 (slime mold beetle) Named for a county in Virginia which was named for Pocahontas. [Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 291.]

Mammuthus columbi Falconer, 1857 (Columbian mammoth) Named after Christopher Columbus. It was widespread in southern North America in the late Pleistocene.

Buddhaites Diener, 1895 (mollusk)

Confucius Distant, 1907 (bug)

Confuciusornis sanctus Hou, Zhou, Gu, and Gang, 1995 (feathered dinosaur) "holy Confucius' bird".

Dalailama Staudinger, 1896 (bombycid moth) from Tibet.

Dalai-Lama C. Mereschkowsky 1906 (diatom)

Orontobia dalailama De Freina, 1997 (tiger moth) from Tibet. "Origo nominis: la nouvelle espèce est dédiée au chef spirituel et politique du peuple tibétain actuellement opprimé: sa Sainteté le Dalai Lama."

Kerygmachela kierkegaardi Budd, 1998 (Cambrian arthropod)

Lutheria Girault (wasp) named for Martin Luther.

Marxella Girault, 1932 (encyrtid wasp) named for Karl Marx.

Parnassius apollo antijesuita Bryk. (a bufferfly) "Antijesuita" means "against jesuits". There's got to be a story behind this.

Petrochirus diogenes (caribbean hermit crab) for the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope.

Plato (spider)

Agathidium bushi, A. cheneyi and A. rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler, 2005 (slime mold beetles) Named after the U.S. president, vice president, and defense secretary.

Agathidium cortezi Miller and Wheeler (slime mold beetle) for conquistador Hernan Cortez, conquerer of the Aztec empire and colonial administrator of New Spain.

Allendia Noonan, 1974 (carabid) Named after Chilean president Salvador Allende.

Arsinoetherium (Oligocene ungulate) Named for the Egyptian-Ptolemaic queen Arsinoe near whose palace the first remains were found.

Caligula (saturniid moth)

Equus grevyi Oustalet 1882 (Grevy's zebra) Named after Jules Grevy (1807-1891), president of France from 1879-1887. The president of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) sent the type specimen to France in 1882, the first zebra seen in Europe since Roman times.

Gazella bilkis Groves & Lay, 1985 (gazelle, recently extinct) for King Solomon's paramour Bilkis, the Queen of Sheba. The gazelle came from Yemen, which may have been Sheba.

Franklinia Bartram, ~1770 (tree, Theaceae) Named after Ben Franklin. Extinct in the wild shortly after its discovery when the one grove of the trees (on the Altamaha R., GA) was cleared for farmland, but the Bartrams preserved seeds, and the tree is now a widespread ornamental.

Gentiana L., 1753 (gentian) The genus is the Greek name of the plant, which comes from Gentius, the last king of Illyria, who reputedly discovered its medicinal properties.

Godiva MacNae, 1954 (nudibranch) Yes, the "nud-" in nudibranch means naked.

Grimaldichthys profondissimus Roule, 1913 (deep sea fish),
Grimalditeuthis bonplandi Joubin, 1898 (transparent squid),
Lepidoteuthis grimaldii Joubin, 1895 (squid) Named after the Grimaldi family, reigning house of Monaco. His Serene Highness Prince Albert I of Monaco was an amateur teuthologist who pioneered the study of deep sea squids by collecting the 'precious regurgitations' of sperm whales. He collected the first two himself, G. profondissimus by trawling at a depth of 19,800 feet (a fishing depth record at the time). L. grimaldii was first collected from the stomach contents of a whale.

Grotiusomyia Girault, 1917 (eulophid wasp) Named for Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist, statesman and codifier of international law.

Jeffersonia (L.) Pers., 1792 (twinleaf) Named when Thomas Jefferson was Secretary of State. The citation stated that "in botany and zoology, the information of this gentleman is equalled by few persons in the United States."

Jenghizkhan Olshevsky vide Olshevsky, Ford & Yamamoto, 1995 (Mongolian tyrannosaurid) named for Genghis Khan. (now syn. with Tarbosaurus)

Jubaea (palm) named after king Juba II of Mauretania (82 BC - 23 AD), writer of some books on natural history, possibly first explorer of Madeira and the Canary Islands, and married to Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Euphorbia regis-jubae Webb and Berthelott (medicinal plant), one of Juba's discoveries, is also named after him.

Lincolna Girault (pteromalid wasp) named for Abraham Lincoln.

Mitra kamehameha Pilsbry, 1921 (Indo-Pacific marine mollusc) Named for King Kamehameha I, who unified the Hawaiian islands and presided over the opening of Hawaii to the rest of the world.

Maotherium Hwang, Norell, Ji, and Gao, 2003 (Cretaceous symmetrodont mammal from China). Named for Communist revolutionary and leader Mao Tse-Deng.

Maxillaria gorbatchowii (Bolivian orchid) Named after Mikhail Gorbachev.

Muntiacus rooseveltorum Osgood, 1932 (Laotian barking deer) discovered by one of Theodore Roosevelt's sons on a 1929 hunting trip, and named for the president.

Neomegamphopus roosevelti Shoemaker, 1942 (marine amphipod) named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Paroxyna cleopatra Hering, 1937 (fruit fly) named for the Egyptian queen; now synonymized with P. messalina , named for Roman empress Messalina, third wife of Claudius I.

Parides montezuma (swallowtail) for Aztec emporer Montezuma.

Pinus montezumae (Mexican pine)

Pundamilia nyererei (Lake Victoria cichlid) Named for Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, one of Africa's great leaders.

Mammuthus jeffersonii Osborn, 1922 (mammoth) Named after Thomas Jefferson.

Megalonyx jeffersonii Desmarest, 1822 (ground sloth) Thomas Jefferson acquired a "great claw" from a West Virginia cave and, in 1796, his letter about it was read at the American Philosophical Society meeting. (Jefferson thought it was a lion.) This is the earliest record of American vertebrate paleontology. Jefferson asked Lewis and Clark to look for a living Megalonyx on their expedition. By then, more complete remains had shown it was not a lion, but he still didn't know its great age.

Mandelia Valdes & Gosliner, 1999 (sea slug) in honor of Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle for multiracial government in South Africa.

Napoleonaea imperialis (bromeliad)

Anophthalmus hitleri Scheibel, 1933 (blind cave beetle) Named by an amateur entomologist admirer of the Fürher (though Dutch biologist/writer Midas Dekkers suggests that naming a blind cave beetle after Hitler was an attempt to ridiculize him). It is found in only five Slovenian caves and is endangered by collectors of Hitler memorabilia. [Entomologische Blätter 33: 438]

Roechlingia hitleri Guthörl, 1934 (paleodictyopteran) See Canad. J. Zool. 61:1684-86 for discussion of appropriateness of the name. That article considers it a junior synonym of Sclepasma gigas Handlirsch, 1911.

Rotaovula hirohitoi Cate and Azuma, 1973 (rare marine mollusc) named for Michinomiya Hirohito, Emporer of Japan and marine biologist whose specific interests included hydroids and dominion over Asia.

Scipionyx dal Sasso & Signore, 1998 Named for Scipio Africanus. This is the first dinosaur found in Italy (and the first with fossilized internal organs).

Sequoia (redwood) named after Sequoyah, Cherokee chief and inventer of the Cherokee written language. (It is also one of the shortest words with all five vowels.)

Spartacus (leaf bug)

Strelitzia reginae Aiton, ~1773 (bird-of-paradise plant) Named for England's Queen Charlotte Sophia Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of Mad King George III. She took a marked interest in botany, generously sponsored the gardens at Kew, including expeditions and publications, and was a decent botanical illustrator herself.

Tecunumania Standley & Steyermark (wild gourd) named after Tecún Umán, Mayan general who was defeated by Pedro de Alvarado in the conquest of Guatemala.

Victoria 1838 (Victoria water lily) for the Queen.

Washingtonia (fan palm) after president George.

Xenopsylla cheopsis (Oriental rat flea; vector of Plague) Named for the pharaoh Cheops, whose tomb is the Great Pyramid.

Apistogramma mendezi Römer 1994 (cichlid) Named for rubber tapper and rainforest defender Chico Mendes, but misspelled. [Aqua, J. Ichthy. Aquat. Biol. 1(1): 1-12]

Blighia Koenig (tropical akee fruit) Named after Captain Bligh of the H. M. S. Bounty, who brought it to the West Indies as food for slaves.

Bobbichthys (fossil fish)

Dasykaluta rosamondae (Ride 1964) (kaluta, an Australian "marsupial mouse") It has reddish fur and was discovered on a sheep farm called Woodstock Station living in prickly spinifex bushes. It was named after the King Henry II's red-headed mistress Rosamond, who was kept locked in the Royal Manor of Woodstock surrounded by a maze of prickly hedges.

Elseya irwini Cann 1997 (Irwin's turtle) for Steve and Bob Irwin, who discovered the species in the Burdekin River in 1990. Steve was best known as 'the Crocodile Hunter' on TV but did a lot of good herpetological work. Bob is his father. [Journal of the Victorian Herpetological Society 9(1)]

Eristalis gatesi Thompson, 1997 (flower fly) Named after Bill Gates "in recognition of his great contributions" to dipterology, presumably referring to money, not to bugs of another sort.

Geoballus caputalbus Crabill, 1969 (millipede) Named after its collectors, George Ball and Donald Whitehead.

Gretchena delicatana, G. dulciana, G. amatana, G. concubitana Heinrich, 1923 (moths) named by taxonomist Carl Heinrich after his love interest(?) Gretchen; the names are derived, in order, from "delicate", "sweet", "beloved", "lying together".

Pheidole mooreorum Wilson, 2002 (ant) named after Gordon Moore and his wife for their environmental philanthropy. Moore, founder of Intel, is famous for expounding Moore's Law, about exponential growth of computing power.

Sylvilagus palustris hefneri Lazell, 1984 (Lower Keys marsh rabbit) An endangered rabbit named after Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

Achelousaurus horneri Sampson, 1995 (ceratopsian dinosaur). This hornless ceratopsian evolved from horned ancestors. It was named for Achelous, a Greek river god whose horn was broken in a battle with Heracles. The species name (for paleontologist Jack Horner) replaces the lost horn. [J. Vert. Paleo. 15(4)]

Anapachydiscus terminus Ward (late Cretaceous ammonite) "This was the last ammonite ever to have evolved on earth." Named for Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries.

Aphrodite (sea mouse, a polychaete)

Aquarius (water strider)

Arethusa (swamp pink) This orchid grows in aquatic environments in eastern North America. Named for a Greek nymph whom Artemis transformed into a spring so that she might not suffer the passions of a river god.

Argonauta argo L. (paper nautilus) Named for Jason's ship and its crew.

Athene Boie, 1822 (burrowing owl) The owl was Athene's sacred bird.

Thermarces cerberus Rosenblatt and Cohen, 1986 (Eelpout fish) from the Galapagos rift vents. Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades.

Cassiopeia andromeda (Eschscholz) (upside-down sea jelly) Andromeda was the daughter of Cassiopeia in Greek myth.

Cloacina von Linstow 1898 (nematode) found only in the stomachs of kangaroos; named after Cloacina, the Roman goddess of the sewers.

Cyclops (copepod) with a single median eye.

Daedalosaurus Carroll, 1978 (Late Permian gliding reptile from Madagascar) and Icarosaurus Colbert, 1970 (Upper Triassic gliding reptile from New Jersey), after Daedalus and Icarus.

Damocles Lund, 1986 (Carboniferous shark) The males had an elaborate projection from the back that ended poised over its head.

Gorgonocephalus medusae (basket star) The basket star looks like a mass of serpents. Medusa was the most famous of the Gorgons, which had serpents for hair.

Hades Westwood, 1851 (riodinid butterfly)

Harpia harpyja (harpy eagle)

Harpymimus Barsbold & Perle, 1984 (theropod dinosaur)

Hermes Montfort, 1810 (snail)

Mars Jordan & Seale, 1906 (fish)

Moira atropis and M. clotho (heart urchins) In Greek myth, the Moirae are the three Fates, named Atropis, Clotho, and Lachesis.

Pan Oken, 1816 (chimpanzee)

Pandora Druguire, 1797 (clam)

Pegasus Linnaeus, 1758 (seamoth fish)

Phaeton Linnaeus, 1758 (tropicbird)

Pluto (aphid wasp)

Chalicodoma pluto Smith, 1860 (world's largest bee, from the rainforests of the Moluccas) The type specimen was collected by Alfred R. Wallace. Only one other specimen was found before 1990, when several nests were found in termite nests.

Polyphemus (water flea)

Poseidon Herklots, 1851 (crustacean)

Proteus Laurenti 1768 (blind cave salamander) Europe's only troglobitic chordate. Named for a Greek sea god, the son of Poseidon. There is also Amoeba proteus (amoeba), so named because Proteus had the ability to change form.

Sterculius (rove beetle, or plant) Sterculius was the Greek god of the latrine, and rove beetles are often found associated with dung. Sterculius is also a genus of plant, many species of which emit a dung-like odor from flowers or leaves. Its family, Sterculiaceae, also includes chocolate and cola.

Titanus giganteus (L) (cerambycid beetle) The world's largest (but not heaviest) beetle.

Zeus Linnaeus, 1758 (dory fish)

Aegirosaurus Bardet & Fernandez, 2000 (Upper Jurassic ichthyosaur) Named for Aegir, god of the oceans and seashores.

Asgardaspira Wagner 1999 (snail) It is very loosely coiled, with a serpent-like look. [Smithsonian Contrib. to Paleobiology 88:1-154]

Clossiana frigga, C. freija (Thunberg, 1791) (fritillaries)

Clossiana thore (Hübner, 1803) (fritillary)

Freya Thery, 1943 (buprestid beetle)

Eoconodon nidhoggi Van Valen, 1978 (paleocene mammal) Named for the Nordic corpse-eating underworld serpent (and found in Purgatory Hill).

Ragnarok Van Valen, 1978 (paleocene mammal, synonym of Baioconodon Gazin, 1941) for Norse end times, "Doom of the Gods."

Thor (Caribbean shrimp)

Sampo Öpik, 1933 (Ordovician brachiopod) named for the three-sided magic mill that in Finnish mythology created flour, salt, and gold.

Angelica archangelica Linnaeus (umbellifer) Traditionally said to bloom on May 8, the day of St. Michael the Archangel.

Apocrypha Eschscholtz, 1831 (darkling beetle)

Arca noae (clam) after Noah's ark.

Delilah Dillon & Dillon, 1945 (longhorn beetle)

Mirapinna esau Bertelsen and Marshall 1956 (hairy fish) Named after Esau, a hairy character of the Bible. The fish has curious growths all over its body, making it look like it is covered in fur.

Goliathus (African scarab) One of the world's largest beetles.

Golem Whitley, 1957 (frogfish)

Ifrita Rothschild 1898 (blue-capped babbler of New Guinea) from Arabic ifrit 'djinn or spirit'.

Ipomopsis sancti-spiritus (Polemoniaceae) Holy ghost Ipomopsis, an endangered plant.

Moloch Gray, 1841 (thorny devil lizard)

Phoenix (date palm)

Purgatorius (Paleocene fossil primate) Named after Purgatory Hill, Montana?

Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) (spiny shrub or tree) Christ's crown-of-thorns is traditionally said to have been made from this plant.

Baalzebub (spider)

Lucifer Doderlein, 1882 (fish)

Mephisto Tyler, 1966 (spikefish)

Satan Hubbs & Bailey, 1947 (catfish) A blind unpigmented fish from artesian wells 1000-1250 feet underground, near San Antonio, TX. "Satan eurystomus signifies 'wide-mouthed prince of darkness.'" [Occasional Papers Mus. Zool., U. of Mich. 499: 1-15.]

Satanoperca lilith Kullander & Ferreira 1988 (Amazonian cichlid) There were also S. daemon and S. jurupari (the latter named after a Tupi forest demon), but these have been moved to the genus Geophagus. [Cybium 12(4): 344; Ann. Wien. Mus. Naturges. 2: 389,392]

Bubalus mephistopheles (Hopwood, 1925) (extinct buffalo)

Pudu mephistopheles (Northern Pudu deer)

Paraxerus lucifer (rodent)

Solidago satanica Lunell, 1911 (goldenrod) Its type specimen came from Devil's Lake, North Dakota. (It is now probably synonymized with another species.) [American Midland Naturalist 2: 58]

Daimonelix Barbour, 1891 ("Devil's corkscrew", nine-foot spiral tubes, trace fossil burrows of the Miocene beaver Paleocastor)

Astarte (clam)

Stygimoloch Galton & Sues, 1983 (pachycephalosaur) from "Styx", for the Hell Creek Formation; "Moloch", after an Ammonite god.

Zu Walters & Fitch, 1960 (ribbonfish) Zu was an lesser Akkadian deity.

Ammonoidea (ammonite, fossil cephalopod) Named after the Egyptian god Amun (Ammon), who was represented by a ram, because the shells resemble ram's horns--in particular, the Horn of Ammon, the cornucopia from Roman myth.

Anubis Thomson, 1864 (longhorn beetle)

Papio anubis (olive baboon) The baboon was sacred in Egypt.

Kheper aegyptiorum Latreille, 1827 (dung beetle) Named after Khepera, god of the rising sun; the dung beetle is his emblem.

Osiris (bee)

Phoenix (date palm)

Sphinx L., 1758 (sphinx moth)

Cynopterus sphinx (short-eared fruit bat)

Thoth Linnavuori, 1993 (plant bug)

Apsaravis Norell & Clark, 2001 (fossil bird) 'Apsara' (Sanskrit), winged consorts prominent in Buddhist and Hindu art, plus 'avis' (Gk), bird.

Brahmaea (moth)

Bramatherium Falconer, 1845 (Miocene giraffid),
Vishnutherium (fossil giraffid),
Sivatherium Falconer & Cautley, 1832 (Pleistocene giraffid) Named for the Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, the Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer. All these giraffids are from India.

Citipati Clark, Norell & Barsbold, 2001 (oviraptor dinosaur) Citipati are funeral demons from Buddhist tradition, often represented by two dancing skeletons, representing the impermanence of worldly things.

Garudimimus Barsbold, 1981 (theropod dinosaur) "Garuda mimic"; Garuda is the Hindu prince of birds.

Kali Lloyd, 1909 (deep-sea swallower fish)

Ramapithecus (Miocene ape) from Pakistan; named after Rama.

Sivapithecus (Miocene ape) from India; named after Siva.

Stegodon ganesa (Pliocene elephant) Named for Ganesa, the elephant-headed Hindu god of wisdom and art. It was the subject of the world's first postage stamp featuring a reconstructed prehistoric animal (in India, Jan. 1951).

Azhdarcho Nessov, 1984 (Cretaceous Uzbekistan pterosaur) named for an Uzbek dragon.

Indricotherium (Oligo-Miocene rhinoceros) This, the largest terrestrial mammal, was named for Indrik, the Lord of the Animals in Russian folklore. Ironically, Indricotherium was hornless, while Lord Indrik was horned.

Izanami Galil & Clark, 1994 (Matutine crab) named for Izanami, the primordial goddess in Japanese Shinto mythology.

Jobaria Sereno et al, 1999 (Cretaceous sauropod) from the Niger Republic; named for "Jobar", a creature from Tuareg mythology.

Kakuru Molnar & Pledge, 1980 (theropod dinosaur) "Rainbow serpent" from South Australia. It is the only known dinosaur preserved as opal.

Kiwa 2006 ("yeti crab") Named for the Polynesian goddess of crustaceans.

Mahakala Turner et al., 2007 Named for one of eight protector deities of Tibetan Buddhism.

Mauisaurus Hector 1874 (plesiosaur from New Zealand) after Maui, a demi-god of Maori mythology.

Pseudionella akuaku Boyko & Williams, 2001 (isopod (Crustacea: Isopoda: Bopyroidea) parasitic on hermit crabs) Named after a Polynesian spirit known to pinch children.

Sordes Sharov, 1971 (Jurassic Kazakhstan pterosaur) named for a Russian demon.

Tangaroa Lehtinen, 1967 (Tahitian uloborid spider) named for the Tahitian god of the sea.

Taniwhasaurus Hector 1874 (mosasaur from New Zealand) A taniwha is a dragon-like giant lizard of Maori myth.

Tara Peckham & Peckham, 1886 (jumping spider) named for the Buddhist saviour-goddess, the feminine counterpart of the bodhisattva.

Woolungasaurus Persson 1964 (plesiosaur from Australia) after the Woolunga, a reptile-like beast from Aborigine mythology.

Xevioso Lehtinen, 1967 (Amaurobiid spider) named for a West African god of storm.

Yurlunggur Scanlon, 1992 (Middle Miocene madtsoiid python) named for the Australian rainbow serpent Yurlunggur.

Alabagrus coatlicue, A. ixtilton, A. mixcoatl, and A. xolotl (Braconid wasps) named for Aztec deities.

Quetzalcoatlus northropi Lawson, 1975 (Texas pterosaur) Named after an Aztec god and an aircraft designer. The pterosaur was as large as an ultra-light plane.

Chrysina quetzalcoatli (Honduran jewel scarab)

Tlaloc Alvarez & Carranza, 1951 (Central American killifish) named for the Aztec rain and fertility deity.

Anhanguera Campos & Kellner, 1985 (Brazilian pterosaur) named for a Tupian spirit.

Brontotherium Marsh (Oligocene ungulate) Named for the Sioux mythical "Thunder beast" (albeit in Greek, not Siouxan) associated with the big fossils exposed by thunderstorms in the Dakota badlands.

Mapinguari Wiedemann, 1828 (gigantic mydid flies) Named for an ogre of Amazonian Indian folklore. Only three specimens are known.

Sacisaurus Ferigolo & Langer, 2006 (ornithischian dinosaur) named for Saci, a one-legged elf from Brazilian folklore, because the fossil was missing a leg.

Tapejara Kellner, 1990 (Brazilian pterosaur) "The old being" from Tupi mythology.

Tupilakosaurus Nielsen, 1954 (fossil amphibian) named after an Inuit water spirit.

Tupuxuara Kellner & Campos, 1989 (pterosaur from Brazil) named for a Tupian "familiar spirit".

Crito Distand, 1916 (leafhopper) named after a dialog by Plato.

Electra Lamouroux 1816 (bryozoan)

Gargantua Jullien, 1888 (bryozoan)

Gargantuavis philoinis Buffetaut and Le Loeuff, 1998 (huge Cretaceous flightless bird) This French fossil was named for one of the giants in Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. "Philoinis" means "wine-loving", which describes the original Gargantua but probably not the bird.

Grendelius McGowan, 1976 (Jurassic ichthyosaur) named for Beowulf's nemesis. Now synonymized with Brachypterygius.

Iago Compagno & Springer, 1971 (shark)

Ophelia (annelid)

Peneothello (robin) probably so named because the bird is mostly black ("pene" means "almost").

Puck (anglerfish)

Oedipus rex (salamander)

Oedipodrilus oedipus Holt (worm)

Saguinus oedipus oedipus (cotton-top tamarin) According to a paper presented by A. J. Ginther and C. T. Snowdon at the 2004 American Society of Primatologists conference ("The Oedipal conflict in Saguinus oedipus"), these tamarins really do love their mothers (though the dams do not let them complete the process). Apparently, though, this behavior was not observed until after the species was named, perhaps for its big feet.

Ozymandias Jordan & Gilbert, 1919 (fossil fish)

Agra eponine Erwin (carabid) Named after the street urchin in Les Miserables.

Bagherra kiplingii Peckham and Peckham, 1896 (Mexican spider) Named for Rudyard Kipling and Bagheera, the black panther from Kipling's The Jungle Book.

Balnibarbi Fortey (trilobite) Named for the abysmally inept technocracy in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Borogovia Osmólska, 1987 (theropod dinosaur) from "borogove", a mimsy creature from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky".

Daggoo, Queequeg, and Tashtego Sime & Wahl, 2002 (ichneumonid wasps) named for the harpoonists in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. [Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 134: 1]

Dracula Luer 1978 (orchid) The orchid is blackish-red and looks like a bat. The name has also been used erroneously for the pigeon genus Ducula.

Liparis draculoides (another orchid)

Desmodus draculae Morgan, Linares and Ray, 1988 (giant South American vampire bat, recently extinct).

Draculo Snyder, 1911 (dragonet fish)

Dryadella lilliputiana Cogniaux (orchid) named for the country of diminutive feuding people in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Holorusia brobdingnagius (crane fly) Named for the Brobdingnags, a race of giants in Swift's Gulliver's Travels. According to Guinness, it is probably the world's largest crane fly, it has a wingspan of 4 inches, and its legs may spread almost 9 inches.

Ichabodcraniosaurus Novacek 1996 [nomen nudum] (dinosaur) Named for a character in Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was found without a head; a head was found later, but it is uncertain whether the head belongs to the skeleton.

Agra ichabod Erwin, 2002 (carabid) "Refers to the fact that the holotype is missing its head and the illusion is that of the frightened schoolteacher Ichabod Crane's phantom nemesis, the Headless Horseman, in 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'...."

Laputa Whitley, 1930 (fish) and, more appropriately,
Laputavis Dyke, 2001 (Middle Eocene fossil swift) named for the floating castle in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Morlockia Garcia-Valdecasas, 1984 (cave-dwelling remipede crustacean) Named for the Morlocks, the subterranean subhumanoids in H.G. Well's The Time Machine.

Muscatheres Evenhuis, 1986 (bee fly) "There are only three Muscatheres known," referring to three specimens of the lone species, M. lurida (previously described in the genus Phthiria).

Pseudione quasimodo Boyko & Williams, 2004 (parasitic isopod (Crustacea: Isopoda: Bopyroidea) found under the carapace of hermit crabs) Named for Victor Hugo's bell ringer of Notre Dame, as the parasite has a distinct bulge in dorsal view. (Boyko originally wrote in the manuscript that he "had a hunch" it was a new species, but the un-amused editor insisted that be stricken from the text.)

Semiramis Becker, 1913 (bombyliid fly) A story by Voltaire about a Babylonian queen.

Stylaclista quasimodo Early (diapriid wasp)

Tetragnatha quasimodo (Hawaiian spider) Named for the kyphotic bellringer in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Walckenaeria pinocchio Kaston, 1945 (spider) Named for Carlo Lorenzini's prevaricating marionette in The Adventures of Pinocchio.

Dracorex hogwartsia Bakker et al. 2006 (pachycephalosaur dinosaur) Named for Hogwarts School of Harry Potter fame. The genus means "dragon king." J. K. Rowling wrote, "I am absolutely thrilled to think that Hogwarts has made a small (claw?) mark upon the fascinating world of dinosaurs." The skull is on display at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Eeyorius Paulin, 1986 (Australian fish) named for the donkey in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books. Like Eeyore, it lives in damp, dark places.

Humbert humberti Sime & Wahl, 2002 (ichneumonid wasp) Named for Nabokov's Lolita pederast Humbert Humbert. [Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 134: 1]

Irritator challengeri Martill, Cruikshank, Frey, Small & Clarke, 1996 (small theropod dinosaur) "challengeri" refers to Professor Challenger, a character from Doyle's The Lost World. The generic name came from the fact that inept amateurs broke the skull in extracting it and rebuilt it incorrectly.

Ledermanniella maturiniana Beentje, 2005 (a minute Kenyan waterweed, Podostemaceae) Named after Patrick O'Brian's character Doctor Stephen Maturin, an avid naturalist and pathetic sailor who often managed to fall off boats. Like him, this plant is often immersed.

Macrocarpaea apparata Grant & Struwe, 2003 (gentian) Named after the verb "to apparate" made popular in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. As a wizard apparating out of nowhere, this 12-foot high plant appeared to botanists on a misty hillside in southern Ecuador. (More info here) [Harvard Papers in Botany 8: 61]

Ozraptor subotaii Long & Molnar, 1998 (theropod dinosaur) Named after Subotai, a swift-running thief from Conan the Barbarian, whose behavior this dinosaur is supposed to have emulated. ("Oz" in the genus name comes from a colloquial abbreviation of Australia.)

Pimoa cthulhu Hormiga, 1994 (spider) Named after H. P. Lovecraft's evil god.

Savignia naniplopi Bosselaers and Henderickx 2002 (linyphiid spider) "The species is named after the gnome (Latin 'nanus') Plop, a popular character from children's stories whose cap is similar in shape to the male cephalic snout of the present species." [Zootaxa 109:3]

Pseudolucia hazeorum Bálint and Johnson, 1993 (lycaenid) Referring both to the hazy wing color and to the Haze family from Lolita. Nabokov himself was an expert on lycaenids, particularly the genus Pseudolucia, which he named. Other lycaenid names derive from Nabokov stories, too, including:.

Madeleinea nodo, M. odon Bálint & Johnson, 1994 (lycaenid butterflies) Named after half-brothers in Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, reflecting their close relatedness. Madeleinea cobaltana Bálint & Lamas, 1994 is named for Kobalt, a mountain resort in Pale Fire.

Madeleinea lolita Bálint, 1993,

Pseudolucia charlotte, P. clarea Bálint and Johnson, 1993, P. humbert Bálint and Johnson, 1995 (lycaenids) Named after characters in Nabokov's Lolita.

Paralycaeides hazelea Bálint & Johnson, 1995 and P. shade Bálint, 1993 (lycaenids) After characters in Nabokov's Pale Fire.

Itylos pnin Bálint, 1993 for Professor Pnin.

Nabokovia ada Bálint & Lamas, 1994, for the title character, and Madeleinea ardisensis Bálint & Lamas, 1996 named after Ardis Hall, a place in Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.

Adelopsis dumbo Gnaspini & Peck 2001 (leiodid beetle) Named for the big-eared cartoon elephant, because the beetle's aedeagus, which resembles an elephant proboscis, has at its tip a very large lateral projection resembling an ear.

Albunione yoda Markham & Boyko, 2003 (parasitic isopod (Crustacea: Isopoda: Bopyroidea)) Named for Yoda of Star Wars fame. This species, found under the carapace of sand crabs, has large projectiog lateral flaps on the sides of its head that look like Yoda's ears.

Bambiraptor Burnham, Derstler, Currie, Bakker, Zhou & Ostrom, 2000 (theropod dinosaur) after Disney's Bambi, because of its small size. [U. Kansas Paleo contributions 13] (See also a dinosaur mailing list thread which includes much discussion of the appropriateness of the name.)

Celmus michaelmus Adrain & Fortey, 1997 (trilobite) Its abdominal apex looks like a Mouseketeer hat.

Ceraeochrysa michaelmuris Adams & Penny (lacewing) Its abdominal apex looks like a Mouseketeer hat.

Chloridops regiskongi James & Olson, 1991 (extinct Hawaiian finch) Described by a local journalist as "a real King Kong finch", thus the name.

Darthvaderum Hunt, 1996 (oribatid mite) "Etymology: When I saw the SEM [scanning electron micrograph] of the gnathosoma I immediately thought of Darth Vader, evil antihero of Star Wars." [Records of the Australian Museum 48: 303-324]

Eubetia boop Brown (tortricid moth)

Gojirasaurus Carpenter, 1997 (theropod dinosaur) "Gojira" is the Japanese name for Godzilla (but the dinosaur was found in New Mexico).

Godzillius Yager, 1986 (remipede crustacean) These are the largest such crustaceans, from underwater caves in the Bahamas. The family Godzilliidae takes its name from this genus.

Godzilligonomus Yager, 1989 (godzilliid) The smallest remipede. [Bull. of Marine Sci. 44(3):1195]

Han solo Turvey 2005 (agnostid trilobite) Officially, the genus is named after the Han Chinese (the fossil is from northern Hunan Province, China), and the species is so named because it appears to represent the last surviving member of the Diplagnostidae. Really, Turvey's friends dared him to name a species after a Star Wars character, as most of the characters' names sound like scientific names. [Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh: Earth Sci. 95: 527-542]

Pleomothra Yager, 1989 (godzilliid) Named after Mothra. [Bull. of Marine Sci. 44(3):1195]

Sinemys gamera Brinkman & Peng, 1993 (Japanese fossil turtle) Named after the giant Japanese fire-breathing flying turtle. The fossil has wing-like projections from its shell.

Hortipes terminator Bosselaers & Jacque (spider) The male's palps resemble a "futuristic gun."

Polemistus chewbacca Menke, 1983 (wasp)

Polemistus vaderi Menke, 1983 (wasp)

Agathidium vaderi Miller and Wheeler, 2004 (slime mold beetle) Its head resembles Darth Vader's helmet.

Agra sasquatch Erwin, 1982 (carabid) with big feet.

Agra yeti Erwin, 1982 (carabid) sister species of A. sasquatch.

Camelotia Galton, 1985 (Triassic prosauropod) from England; named for Camelot.

Campsicnemius uncleremus Evenhuis, 2000 (dolichopodid fly)

Cinderella Steyskal, 1949 (heleomyzid fly)

Thylamys cinderella (Cinderella fat-tailed opossum) from NW Argentina.

Crocidura cinderella (Cinderella shrew) from Africa.

Dracaena draco (dragon tree)

Dracaena and Draco (lizards)

Dracunculus (round worm) Named after "draco", dragon. D. medinensis is the largest tissue parasite of man (it can grow longer than 3 feet). It is possible to extract the worm by winding it slowly, over a period of days or weeks, around a stick. This may be the source of the physician's caduceus. D. medinensis is on WHO's hit list and may soon be eradicated.

Gargoyleosaurus Carpenter, Miles, & Cloward, 1998 (ankylosaurid dinosaur)

Goniacodon? hiawathae Van Valen, 1978 (paleocene mammal) for Hiawatha, legendary founder of the Iriquois League.

Leprechaunus (treehopper)

Merlinia (trilobite) Named for King Arthur's wizard

Excalibosaurus McGowan, 1986 (Jurassic ichthyosaur) Named after King Arthur's sword. Excalibosaurus has a swordlike upper jaw, and it was found in Britain's west country, the place of the emergence of Excalibur.

Paroxyna babayaga Hering, 1938 (tephritid fruit fly) Named for the ugly Russian folklore monster Babayaga.

Polypterus mokelembembe Schafer and Schliewen 2006 (freshwater fish called bichir or reedfish) Named for the cryptozoological Congolese dinosaur-like creature Mokele-mbembe (featured, e.g., in the Disney movie "Baby"). The bichirs have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, and this particular species comes from the Congo. [Zootaxa 1129: 25-36]

Pteropus vampyrus (giant Malaysian fruit bat)

Sanctacaris Briggs & Collins, 1988 (fossil primitive chelicerate) Literally "Santa claws" [see Gould, Wonderful Life, p. 186-187]

Leucothoe tolkieni G. Vinogradov, 1990 (amphipod) Named after J.R.R. Tolkien. [Vinogradov, G. M. 1990. Trudy instituta okeanologii AN SSSR (Transactions of the Inst. of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Science) 124: 27-104 (in Russian).]

Aletodon mellon (Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammal) "mellon," Elvish for "friend," was the password into Moria.

Ancalagon Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian priapulid) From a dragon from Tolkien.

Ankalagon Van Valen, 1980 (Paleocene mesonychid mammal) Renamed from Ancalagon because it was preoccupied.

Anisonchus eowynae Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of A. athelas Van Valen 1978) for Éowyn, Princess of Rohan. "Athelas" was a Middle Earth healing plant.

Beorn Cooper, 1964 (fossil tartigrade) Named after the character Beorn from The Hobbit.

Bomburia Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for Bombur.

Bubogonia bombadili and Protoselene bombadili (Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammals) after Tom Bombadil.

Claenodon mumak (Van Valen, 1978) (Paleocene mammal) after Mûmak, the Middle Earth elephant

Deltatherium durini Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) Several notable Dwarves were named Durin.

Earendil Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Mimatuta Van Valen, 1978) for Eärendil, father of Elrond.

Elachista amrodella, E. aredhella, E. caranthirella, E. curufinella, E. daeronella, E. diorella, E. finarfinella, E. gildorella, E. indisella, E. maglorella, E. miriella, E. turgonella (Kaila 1999) (moths) Named after elves from Tolkien, respectively: Amrod (Amras' twin), Aredhel (The White Lady of Gondolin), Caranthir, Curufin, Daeron (Chief loremaster of Doriath), Dior (King of Doriath), Finarfin (Noldor King in Aman), Gildor Inglorion (High-Elf of Eriador & Imladris), Indis, Maglor, Miriel, Turgon (Lord of Nevrast, then Gondolin). Kaila mentions that Elves "one after other sailed over the water to the West, and were later difficult to see with human eyes," alluding to the studied moths, which are very inconspicuous and have spread to Nearctic areas. [Acta Zool. Fennica 211]

Fimbrethil ambaronae Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Oxyacodon agapetillus (Cope 1884)) Fimbrethil was an Ent-maiden; Ambaróna was a name for the Ents' forest.

Frodospira Wagner 1999 (Silurian gastropod) A small genus named after a certain hobbit. [Am. Malacological Bull. 15:1-31]

Galaxias gollumoides (fresh-water fish) Named after Gollum because it has large eyes and was found in a swamp.

Gollum Compagno, 1973 (catshark)

Gollumjapyx smeagol (dipluran hexapod)

Gwaihiria Nauman (diapriid wasp) Named for Gwaihir, Lord of the Eagles.

Litaletes ondolinde Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for Ondolindë, an Elven city.

Macrostyphlus frodo Morrone, 1994 (Andean weevil)

Macrostyphlus gandalf Morrone, 1994 (Andean weevil) [This and M. frodo are from American Museum Novitates 3104: 1-63.]

Mimotricentes mirielae Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Loxolophus hyattianus (Cope, 1885)) after Míriel, an Elf.

Mimatuta morgoth Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) for the "dark enemy of the world."

Mimatuta minuial Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) "minuial" is Elvish for dawn's twilight.

Mithrandir Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) one of the names of the wizard Gandalf.

Niphredil radagasti Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal, now in genus Paleotomus) Niphredil is a small Middle Earth flower. Radagast the Brown was a wizard.

Osteoborus orc Webb, 1969 (Pliocene canid)

Oxyprimus galadrielae Van Valen, 1978 (arctocyonid Paleocene mammal) for elf Lady Galadriel.

Pericompsus bilbo Erwin (carabid) for the title character of The Hobbit. So called because "it was short, fat, and had hairy feet."

Platymastus palantir Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) The palantír was a magical viewing stone.

Protungulatum gorgun Van Valen, 1978 (Paleocene mammal) "gorgûn" is a term for Orcs.

Smeagol Climo, 1980 (gastropod, family Smeagolidae) Another name for Gollum.

Smeagolia Hedqvist, 1973 (pteromalid wasp)

Syconycteris hobbit (moss-forest blossom bat)

Thangorodrim thalion Van Valen (Paleocene mammal, synonym of Oxyclaenus Cope 1884) Thangorodrim are the three tallest towers of Endor; Thalion is a character from Tolkien's Silmarillion.

Tinuviel Van Valen (Paleocene mammal) for a most beautiful elf. The name is Elvish for nightingale.

Batman Whitley, 1956 (Australian fish) Refers to a similarity between this fish's dorsal fin and the "bats" with which servicemen used to signal approaching aircraft on a carrier, rather than the famous Dark Knight of the graphic novels. Batman has now been replaced with the older Cryptocentrus.

Conus tribblei Walls, 1977 (marine snail) Named after a pet cat named "Tribbles", which was named after the furry creatures from Star Trek. [The Pariah 1: 1-3.]

Bidenichthys beeblebroxi Paulin, 1995 (triple-fin blenny) with a false head pattern.

Erechthias beeblebroxi Robinson & Nelson, 1993 (tineid) with a false head; after Zaphod Beeblebrox, two-headed character from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Fiordichthys slartibartfasti Paulin, 1995 (brotulid, a deep-sea fish) Named for Hitchhiker's Guide character Slartibartfast, who is noted for designing fjords.

Geragnostus waldorfstatleri Turvey 2005 (trilobite) The pygidium (tail) looks just like the heads of Waldorf and Statler of "The Muppet Show." [Trans. Royal Soc. Edinburgh: Earth Sci. 95: 527-542]

Lepidopa luciae Boyko, 2002 (sand crab (Crustacea: Anomura: Albuneidae)) Boyko originally thought to name it for cartoonist Charles Schulz ("Peanuts") but Schulz's wife had the bright suggestion to name it for Lucy van Pelt as her character was known for being crabby. The monograph in which it is described includes an appropriate "Peanuts" strip.

Mestoronema Wagner 1999 (fossil snail) Named after the evil snail king on a Dr. Who episode. [Smithsonian Contrib. to Paleobiology 88:1-154] (Turnabout is fair play; the writers for Dr. Who often took animal names for their monsters -- crinoids, mandrills, Mara, etc.)

Ninjemys Gaffney, 1992 (fossil turtle) Etymology: "Ninja, in allusion to that totally rad, fearsome foursome epitomizing shelled success; emys, turtle."

Amblyoproctus boondocksius Ratcliffe (scarab) from the boondocks.

Ambondro mahabo Flynn & Wyss (Jurassic mammal) named for the Madagascan village of Ambondromahabo.

Apolysis humbugi Evenhuis, 1985 (bombyliid fly) From Humbug Creek, CA.

Oligodranes humbug Evenhuis, 1985 (bombyliid fly) Another from Humbug Creek.

Asiamericana asiatica Nessov, 1995 (fossil saurodontid fish)

Caulkicephalus 2005 (pterosaur) Found on the Isle of Wright, where the inhabitants are informally known as caulkhead.

Dysnocryptus balthasar, D. gaspar, and D. melchior Holloway, 1982 (weevils) from Three Kings' Islands, New Zealand.

Gwyneddichtis gwyneddensis Bock, 1959 (fossil fish), and

Gwyneddichnium gwyneddensis Bock (fossil reptile footprints) both from the Gwynedd Formation at the Gwynedd Tunnel in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.

Haasiophis terrasanctus Tchernov, Rieppel, Zaher, Polcyn & Jacobs, 2000 (Lower Cretaceous marine snake) Named after "holy land", as it was discovered in 'Ein Yabrud, Judean Hills, Israel. It has tiny, well-developed, hind limbs, but there is no indication it could talk.

Hylaeus emir Dathe, 2000 (bee) Named for the United Arab Emirates, where it was discovered; its magnificient coloring also suggests the country's emirs.

Myzocallis kahawaluokalani Kirkaldy (aphid) The Hawaiian name supposedly means, "you fish on your side of the lagoon and I'll fish on the other, and no one will fish in the middle."

Panama canalia Marsh, 1993 (braconid)

Rattus nativitatis (Christmas Island bulldog rat) (recently extinct)

Alabama Grote, 1895 (lep)

Argentina Linnaeus, 1758 (fish) Probably NOT named after the country, but for the Latin for "silver" (which the country is also named for).

Arizona (snake)

Asia Pergens, 1887 (coelentrate; nomen nudum)

Australia Girault, 1928 (parasitic wasp)

Babylonia Schlüter, 1838 (mollusk)

Bulgaria (fungus)

Burma Kirkaldy, 1904 (bug)

China Burr, 1899 (orthopteran)

Colombia Rang, 1835 (mollusk)

Cuba Dyar, 1919 (lep)

Florida Baird, 1858 (bird)

Mexico Spilman, 1972 (jumping shore beetle)

Noumea Risbec, 1928 (nudibranch)

Samoa Sörensen, 1886 (arachnid)

Sonora Baird and Girard 1853 (snake)

Texas Kirkaldy, 1904 (bug)

Uruguay (fossil bee cells) from the Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary, in Uruguay.

Virginia Baird and Girard 1853 (snake)

Ainu Lewis, 1894 (beetle) There are also several species named after these indigenous northern Japanese.

Aphyocharax yekwanae Willink, Chernoff & Machado-Allison, 2003 (tetra) In honor of the Ye'Kwana Indians of the Caura River Basin, Venezuela, where the fish is found.

Azteca (ant)

Callithrix saterei de Sousa & de Noronha, 1998 Named for the Satere-Maues indians in Amazonian Brazil. [Goeldiana Zoologia 21: 1]

Galeodes arabs C.L. Koch, 1842 (solfugid, or sun spider) from the Middle East. (Reaching 10 miles/hour, these may be the fastest terrestrial invertebrates.)

Hopiichnus Welles, 1971 (trackway of a lower Jurassic ornithomimid dinosaur) from Arizona; named for the Hopi.

Lexovisaurus Hoffestetter, 1957 (French stegosaur) named for the ancient Gallic Lexovix tribe.

Micronycteris matses Simmons, Voss, & Fleck, 2002 (Matses' big-eared bat) for the Matses indians of Amazonian Brazil.

Navahoceros (Pleistocene mountain deer)

Navahopus Baird, 1980 (Jurassic footprints) from the Navajo Sandstone

Nipponia nippon (Japanese crested ibis)

Piratosaurus Leidy, 1865 (Late Cretaceous North American Mosasaur)

Prosaurolophus blackfeetensis Horner, 1992 (duck-billed dinosaur) found on a Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Montana.

Yanomamua Grant, Maas, and Struwe, 2006 (herb, Gentianaceae) Named for the Yanomamö, indigenous to the area of Venezuela where the plant is found. [Harvard Papers in Botany 11: 29]

Yicaris dianensis Zhang, Siveter, Waloszek & Maas 2007 (Late Cambrian crustacean) The Yi are an ethnic minority group of Yunnan Province, China. "Dian" refers to an ancient kingdom of southern China.

Zuniceratops Wolfe & Kirkland, 1998 (ceratopsian dinosaur) Named for the Zuni Native American tribe.

Atlascopcosaurus loadsi Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1989 (Australian dinosaur) named after the company Atlas Copco, which provided industrial equipment for the expedition, and for William Loads, the state manager for Atlas Copco at the time, who also assisted during the dig.

Betelgeuse Shaw, 1988 (braconid wasp) Named after the star in the constellation Orion, because Orion has a sword, and the female wasp has a conspicuous sword-like ovipositor. [Psyche 95: 289]

Ceratoperidinium yeye Margalef, 1969 (dinoflagellate) "Yeye" is the name of a popular 1960s dance in Spain. This microalga has two expansions suggesting the legs a girl dancing.

Cyclocephala rorschachoides Ratcliffe (scarab) Presumably it has an ink-blot-like pattern on it.

Cypraea isabella Linnaeus 1758 (Isabella's cowrie) Linnaeus named this parchment-colored, brown-streaked shell after the color "Isabella." The color was named after Archduchess Isabella of Austria, who vowed not to change her underwear until her father, Philip II, won the siege of Ostend. The siege lasted three years.

Diplocriterion yoyo (trace fossil) It loops up and down.

Electrolux addisoni Compagno and Heemstra, 2007 (ray) "The name alludes to the well-developed electrogenic properties of this ray (collectors and photographers have experienced the shocking personality of this bold, active and brightly patterned electric ray first-hand), the discovery of which sheds light (Latin, lux) on the rich and poorly-known fish diversity of the Western Indian Ocean. And the vigorous sucking action displayed on the videotape of the feeding ray that was taken by Stephania and Peer Lamberti may rival a well-known electrical device used to suck the detritus from carpets, furniture, and other dust-gathering surfaces in modern homes..." [Smithiana Bulletin]

Galaxias (freshwater fish) The type species, Galaxias argenteus was so named for the white spotting on its body like stars in a galaxy.

Gasosaurus constructus Dong & Tang, 1985 (Jurassic theropod) Named for the Dashanpu natural gas mining company (in China), whose construction uncovered it.

Golfingia Lankaster, 1885 (Sipunculid) named "in honor of golf". Reportedly, it was discovered while two professors were golfing at St. Andrews. A ball was sliced and landed on a beach next to the unusual animal.

Gordius (horsehair worm) Named after the famously complex Gordian knot. These worms often twist themselves into knots.

Hylaeus tetris Dathe, 2000 (bee) Named for four marks on its scutellum, with reference to the computer game.

Krakatauia planticorum 2004 (long-legged fly) Named after Plantic Technologies, which won naming rights as part of the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, for developing a biodegradable plastic.

Legionella Brenner et al., 1979 (bacteria) This bacterium was first identified when an American Legion convention fell victim to it in Philadelphia in 1976.

Ludodactylus Frey, Martill, and Buchy 2003 (pterosaur) The name means "play pterosaur", in reference to toy models of Pteranodon which so often were inaccurately made with a beak of long, sharp teeth. Ludodactylus looks like Pteranodon but really has such teeth.

Oxybelus cocacolae Verhoeff (sphecid wasp)

Phyllidia polkadotsa Brunckhorst, 1993 (nudibranch)

Proceratium google Fisher, 2005 (ant from Madagascar) Named after the internet search engine company in hopes that it will cooperate on a database of all animal life. "Like Google, the ant is really good at finding obscure prey."

Pseudatrichia atombomba Kelsey, 1969 (window fly (Scenopinidae)) Described from Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Roberthoffstetteria nationalgeographica Marshall, de Muizon & Sige, 1993 (Paleocene mammal) National Geographic probably bankrolled the expedition which found this animal. (Robert Hoffstetter is a paleontologist.)

Saturnalia Langer et al., 1999 (prosauropod dinosaur) Named for the Roman winter solstice festival.

Tabanus yuleanus Philip, 1950 (horse fly) Named in honor of a memorable Christmas day in 1946.

Technosaurus Chatterjee, 1984 (prosauropod dinosaur) "Texas Technological University (Texas Tech) Lizard"

Zen Jordan, 1903 (dory fish)

Strategus mormon Burmeister (scarab)

Agave tequilana Weber (blue agave) from which tequila is made.

Artemesia absinthium (wormwood) from which absinthe is distilled.

Coffea (coffee tree)

Cuttysarkus Estes, 1964 (fossil salamander) probably after a brand of whiskey. Synonymized with Prodesmodon.

La cerveza Landry (pyralid moth)

Pseudophoenux vinifera (Buccaneer palm from Hispaniola) Wine can be brewed from its sap.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewers yeast) "Sugar-eating fungus of beer."

Schizosaccharomyces pombe (yeast) Isolated from an East African beer. "Pombe" is the Swahili word for beer.

Strychnos nux-vomica (Southeast Asian tree) Its seeds are the source of strychnine, brucine, and the bitter emetic nux-vomica.

Zoogonecticus tequila (goodeid fish)

Alvinocaris Williams and Chace, 1982, Mirocaris Vereshchaka, 1997, Nautilocaris Komai and Segonzac, 2004, and Shinkaicaris Komai and Segonzac, 2005 (shrimp). There are just a few manned submersibles used for deep-ocean (>4000 m) scientific research: Alvin (USA), Mir-1 and Mir-2 (Russia), Nautil (France), and Shinkai-6500 (Japan). They are used, among other things, to explore deep-water hydrothermal vents, which often have endemic shrimp species. There is now a shrimp named for each submersible. [J. Crust. Biol. 2: 136; J. Mar. Biol. Ass. UK 77: 425; 84: 1179; J. Nat. Hist. 39: 1111]

Alvinella Desbruyeres and Laubier 1979 and Paralvinella Desbruyeres and Laubier 1982 (polychaete tube-worms). The latter genus has seven species in three subgenera, Paralvinella, Miralvinella and Nautalvinella. Together, these make up the family Alvinellidae.

Bacillus odysseyi La Duc, Satomi & Venkateswaran, 2004 (bacillus) isolated from the surface of the Mars Odyssey orbiter (before it left Earth).

Discoverichthys (deep-sea fish)

Frencrinuroides edseli Edgecombe et al., 1998 (trilobite)

Macrocarpaea canoëfolia, M. kayakifolia, and M. tabula-fluctivagifolia J.R. Grant, 2004 (Peruvian trees, Gentianaceae) Named, respectively, for leaves shaped like canoe, kayak, and surfboard (from "tabula", board + "fluctivagus", surf).

Sorolopha bruneiregalis Tuck & Robinson, 1994 (tortricid moth) after Royal Brunei Airlines.

Qantassaurus Rich & Vickers-Rich, 1999 (Ornithopod dinosaur) Named after Qantas Airlines.

Stenotabanus sputnikulus Philip, 1958 (horse fly) Named "in commemoration of the launching of the first man-made earth satellite, while this species was being described. The fly also undoubtedly buzzes about the earth, even though in a much more restricted way."

Amorphophallus (Araceae) The name means something like "misshapen penis" for the shape of the flowering part, or spadix. Various species include Amorphophallus elegans, A. elatus, A. excentricus, A. gigas, A. hottae, A. impressus, A. interruptus, A. maximus, A. minor, A. odoratus, A. pendulus, A. purpurascens, A. pygmaeus, A. rugosus, A. spectabilis, and A. titanum (at heights up to 8 ft., A. titanum has the world's largest inflorescence, and one of the stinkiest.)

Bangiomorpha pubescens Butterfield, 2000 (fossil red alga) The fossil shows the first recorded sex act, 1.2 billion years ago. The "bang" in the name was intended as a euphamism for sex.

Clitoria L. (butterfly pea) Probably named for the shape of the flowers.

Colymbosathon ecplecticos Siveter et al., 2003 (fossil ostracod) From "Kolymbos (swimmer) + sathon (with a large penis); ekplektikos (astounding)." At 425 million years old, the fossil preserves the oldest known instance of a penis. [Science 302: 1749]

Coprosma foetidissima Forst. & Forst. f. (New Zealand shrub) Literally, "very smelly dung." Its leaves produce an offensive odor when rubbed.

Crepidula fornicata (slipper shell) This hermaphroditic shell forms stacks of individuals; the males on top turn into females as they grow.

Cuterebra emasculator Fitch, 1856 and C. sterilator Lugger, 1897 (bot flies) Both consume the testes of their hosts (rodents).

Cypraecassis testiculus Linnaeus 1758 (sea shell) There are paired spots around the edges of the shell.

Enchantor modestus Manning A crab whose restricted carapace constantly exposes its copulatory organ. The name means "modest flasher."

Eroticoscincus Wells & Wellington, 1984 (subtropical Australian rainforest lizard). Means "sexy skink." A biologist comments, "I'd say these two need to get out more."

Exetastes fornicator Fabricius, 1781 (ichneumonid wasp)

Hornia (meloid beetle)

Labia minor Linnaeus (earwig)

Mammillaria (cactus) Named for its resemblance to breasts.

Monochamus titillator Fabricius (southern whitespotted pine sawyer, a cerambycid beetle)

Orchidaceae (orchids) from Greek "orkhis", testicle, referring to the appearance of the plants' pseudobulb. It was once believed that terrestrial orchids sprang from the spilled semen of mating animals.

Penicillus penis Linnaeus, 1758 (mollusc)

Penicillus vaginiferous Lamarck, 1818 (mollusc)

Phalium Linnaeus 1758 (sea shell) Probably not after phallus, as the shell is not phallic-shaped. One species is named Phalium labiatum Perry 1811.

Phallus impudicus Linnaeus (stinkhorn fungus, family Phallaceae) There is also Phallus daemonicum.

Poescopia (humpback whale) From "poeskop", a local Dutch name meaning "pisspot." [Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1865, p. 207]

Probarbus labeamajor Roberts 1992 and Probarbus labeaminor Roberts 1992 (cyprinid freshwater fish) Referring either to outer genitals of women or size of lips of the fish. The intended interpretation has not been made official.

Priapulus (priapulid) Means "little penis". You need only look at one to see why.

Scatophagus Bloch, 1788 (Scatophagidae) A fish that likes to hang around sewage outlets, commonly sold in the pet trade as the "spotted-scat" or just "scat".

Spinophallus uminskii (snail) "Uminski's spiny penis." Uminski approved the name.

Trypauchen vagina Bloch & Schneider, 1801 (pink mud goby)

Venus mercienaria (clam) Means "Venus selling favors".

Adlafia G. Moser, H. Lange-Bertalot & D. Metzeltin 1998 (diatom) for the Association des Diatomistes de Langue Française (A.D.La.F.)

Afipia (bacterium) after AFIP: Armed Force Institute of Pathology.

Afropolonia tgifi Goff, 1983 (chigger) from "Thank God it's Friday"

Atalodera ucri (nematode) for University of California, Riverside.

Agra catie Erwin, 2002 (carabid) for Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza, a forestry school at Turrialba.

Atelopus farci Lynch (toad) Named after FARC, the Colombian guerilla army, which used to be active in the toad's habitat. If the army had not taken shelter there, the region probably would have been devastated, and the toads would remain unknown to science.

Bacillus safensis Venkateswaran, 2004 This bacillus has evolved to survive on spacecraft surfaces in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility (whence its name). It is highly resistant to gamma and UV radiation and presumably draws energy from ions of trace metals like aluminum and titanium. It is almost certainly living aboard the Mars rovers and may survive as spores for millions of years.

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Distaso 1912) Castellani and Chalmers 1919 (gut bacterium) from the Greek letters theta, iota, omicron; I do not know why those three letters.

Cedecea (bacterium) after CDC: Centers for Disease Control.

Chromidotilapia mrac Lamboj, 2002 (cichlid) after Muséé Royal de l'Afrique Centrale.

Csiro Medvedev & Lawrence, 1984 (tenebrionid) after Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

Desemzia (bacterium) after DSMZ: Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen.

Drinker nisti Bakker et al., 1990 (ornithopod dinosaur) after the National Institute of Standards and Technology (of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce). "It's the only dinosaur named after an arm of the federal government. Someday I'm going to name one after the I.R.S." - Robert Bakker.

Eurycea sosorum Chippindale, Price, Hillis, 1993 (Barton Springs salamander) The salamander has a very small range. "The species is named in honor of the citizens of Austin, Texas, whose efforts to protect the quality of Barton Springs resulted in the passage of a citizen's aquifer-protection initiative in 1992. This initiative is known locally as the SOS (Save Our Springs) Ordinance, and its supporters as SOSers. The specific name sosorum is the plural mixed-gender genitive form of the acronym SOS." [Herpetologica 49:248-259]

Geocenamus (nematode) "Geographical Center of North America"

Helacyton Van Valen & Maiorana, 1991 (HeLa cell culture). HeLa is a cell culture derived from a cervical cancer of Henrietta Lacks, hence the name. ("Hela" was preoccupied by a crustacean.) It is described as a new species because it is widespread and feral. By some systematics conventions, it is a unicellular species of human. [Evolutionary Theory 10: 71]

Heterodera mani (nematode) for Ministry of Agriculture, Northern Ireland.

Inpaichthys Géry & Junk, 1977 (tetra) Named for INPA, the Brazilian Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia. Also: Crenicichla inpa Ploeg, 1991 (cichlid) and Aguarunichthys inpai Zuanon, Rapp Py-Daniel & Jegu, 1993 (siluroid fish), Bryconops inpai Knoppel et al., 1968 (charaoid fish), and Phytocerum inpa Costa et al., 2003 (beetle) [Syst. Entomol 28: 375]

Lasioglossum gattaca Danforth & Wcislo, 1999 (halticid bee) Referring to the genetic code, whose bases abbreviated A, T, C, and G, and no doubt influenced by the 1997 sci-fi movie "Gattaca." [Annals of ESA 92: 624]

Macrocarpaea gattaca J.R. Grant (gentian)

Maelestes gobiensis Wible et al. 2007. (Late Cretaceous placental mammal) "Mae" is the acronym for Mongolian Academy of Sciences-American Museum of Natural History Expeditions.

Meloidogyne naasi (nematode) for National Agricultural Advisory Service.

Natalichthys ori Winterbottom, 1980 (fish) for the Oceanographic Research Institute, Durban, South Africa.

Natalichthys sam Winterbottom, 1980 (fish) Named for S.A.M., the South African Museum, where the specimen was found.

Pachyplichas jagmi Millener 1988 (New Zealand stout-legged wren, now extinct). After the initials of palaeontologist John A. Grant-Mackie.

Pangolinisis cia Alderslade, 1998 (gorgonian) Found attached to an Australian submarine phone cable, although perhaps not listening in as one might expect from the American C.I.A.

Physalaemus enesefae Heatwole, Solano & Heatwole, 1965 (leptodactylid frog) Named after NSF (National Science Foundation).

Pygopleurus rufovillescens undofi Keith, 2001 (beetle) named after the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force. Found on part of the Golan Hights controlled by UN soldiers.

Rusichthys Winterbottom, 1979 (fish) Named for the collection at the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology (now the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity); "R.U.S.I." (Rhodes University Smith Institute) prefixes all specimen catalog numbers. Mimoblennius rusi Springer & Spreitzer, 1978 (rusi blenny) gets its name from the same source.

Sio (deep-sea fish) for Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

Tanganicodus irsacae (cichlid) for IRSAC, the Central African Science Research Institute.

Taymyroceras niiga Bodylevski, 1958 (Jurassic cephalopod) after Nauchno Issledovatelski Institut Geologii Arctiki (Scientific Institute of the Arctic Geology); published in the transactions of the same institute.

Thomasomys apeco Leo & Gardner, 1993 (Apeco Oldfield mouse) APECO is an acronym for Asociacion Peruana para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza. [Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 106: 417-428.]

Tianchiasaurus nedegoapeferkima Dong & Holden, 1992 (ankylosaurid dinosaur) After Jurassic Park stars "Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sir Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Wayne Knight, Ariana Richards, & Joseph Mazzello". (The genus is named after Lake Tian Chi.) The name was proposed by Steven Speilberg, who donated money for Chinese dinosaur research. The genus was originally named Jurassosaurus before it was formally described.

Tomocichla asfraci Allgayer, 2002 (cichlid) For ASsociation FRAnçaise des CIchlidophiles.

Trichogramma esalqueanum Querino & Zucchi, 2003 (wasp) For Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz".

Trombicula fujigmo Philip & Fuller, 1950 (chigger) After WWII slang--"Fuck you, Jack, I got my orders".

Vegavis iaai Clarke et al. 2005 (Cretaceous bird) Named for the Argentine Antarctica Institute (IAA). [Nature 433: 305]

Uladendron codesuri Marcano-Berti (tree, Malvaceae) ULA = Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela; CODESUR = Comisión para el Desarrollo del Sur (de Venezuela).

Verma ansp Böhlke, 1968 (now Apterichtus ansp) (eel) Indicated to be an arbitrary combination of letters, but actually the acronym for Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, where the author worked.

Vnigriceras Saveliev, 1973 (Cretaceous cephalopod) Named after Vserossijskij Neftjanoy Nauchno-Isdledovatelskij Geologorazvedochnyi Institut (All-Russian Oil Scientific and Geological Survey Institute, in Leningrad), abridged to VNIGRI in Russian. Saveliev also named Myophorella vnigri 1960 (Jurassic bivalve) and Sonneratia (Eosonneratia) vnigri, 1973 (Cretaceous cephalopod)

Waddlia (bacterium) after WADDL: Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.

Abracadabrella birdsville Zabka, 1991 (jumping spider)

Alaptus ah and A. oh Girault, 1930 (mymarid wasp)

Aloha Kirkaldy, 1904 (fulgorid bug) Etymology: "'Aloha', the Hawaiian salutation (lit. 'love')."

Pitohui Lesson and Garnot, 1827 (poisonous New Guinea bird) The name comes from a response to tasting it.

Sayonara Jordan & Steele, 1906 (fish)

Arfia Van Valen, 1965 (a dog-like fossil hyaenodont)

Simulium damnosum (black fly) Refers to the damnable vector of the onchocerciasis (river blindness) parasite.

Damnxanthodium calvum (Greenm.) Strother (composite) The genus name refers to the problem of distinguishing these daisy look-alikes.

Agra calamitas Erwin (carabid) after the destruction befalling its native forest.

Arthrenus museorum Linnaeus, 1761 (dermestid beetle) Linnaeus discovered this beetle devouring valuable museum collections of zoological specimens. Dermestid beetles today are used by museums to prepare skeleton specimens by cleaning soft tissue from them.

Boronia hoipolloi M.F.Duretto, 1999 (Queensland citrus relative) Found in a sandstone amphitheatre. [Austrobaileya 5(2): 288]

Cafeteria roenbergensis Fenchel & Patterson, 1988 (bacterivorous zooflagelate) Patterson said the name "was prompted by a pink neon sign affixed to a wall on hostelry in Roenbjerg (Denmark) which was illuminated just as the authors were about to give up on finding a good name for one of the most significant consumers in the world."

Callicebus aureipalatii (Golden Palace monkey) The right to name this Bolivian monkey were put up for option. GoldenPalace.com, a Canadian web-based casino, paid $650,000 for such publicity. The money will generate an estimated $40,000 to $45,000 per year which the Bolivian Wildlife Conservation Society will use to maintain Madidi National Park, probably the most biologically diverse park in the world.

Calliopsis filiorum Rozen, 1963 (andrenid bee) "Filiorum" is Latin for 'children'. So named because Rozen's children waited patiently in the sun while he dug up the nest.

Chromis humbug Whitley 1954 (fish)

Corydoras narcissus Nijssen & Isbrucker, 1980 (catfish) Named "narcissus" because the discoverers insisted that the describer name it after them.

Cyprinodon inmemoriam Lozano & Contreras, 1993 (Cachoritto de la Trinidad pupfish) recently extinct.

Drepanis funerea Newton, 1893 (black mamo) Robert Perkins discovered this perching bird on the mountains of Molokai, Hawaii 18 June 1893. Perkins proposed the name "funerea" to Alfred Newton, the species describer. This was not only on account of the birds somber jet black plummage, but because of "the sad fate that too probably awaits the species". Fourteen years later, in June of 1907, a collector shot and killed the last three known birds.

Drepanovelia millennium Andersen and Weir, 2001 (veliid water strider) The real "Millennium bug". [Invert. Taxonomy 15: 217-258]

Dypsis mcdonaldiana Beentje, 1995 (palm from Madagascar) named for the hamburger company that funded the research.

Erythroneura ix Myers (leafhopper) This was Myers' 9th species of Erythroneura.

Gaudeamus igitur Simons (Oligocene rodent) The name means "let us therefore be joyful," the first words of a medieval student song. Supposedly, there was something particularly lucky about the fossil.

Goodrichthys (fossil shark)

Halkieria evangelista Conway Morris and Peel, 1995 "The name is chosen as an indication of the fossil's explanatory power for Lower Cambrian palaeontology, and aslo as a pun on Johann, one of the pilots who assisted in field-work." [Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci. 347: 310.]

Hallucigenia Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian marine onychophoran) for "the bizarre and dream-like appearance of the animal". The original interpretation was upside-down; what Conway Morris thought were legs were armor spines on its back.

Horridonia horrida (Permian brachiopod) It has nothing more horrible than a set of spines.

Hymenodon reggaeus Karttunen & Back, 1988 (moss) Karttunen collected this moss in Jamaica and named it after the local music.

Indicator indicator Sparrman, 1777 (greater honey-guide) This African bird leads people and honey-badgers to honey nests.

Luckia striki Bellan-Santini & Thurston 1996 (amphipod) Named for the "Lucky Strike" hydrothermal vent field along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Macrocarpaea lacrossiformis J.R. Grant (gentian)

Mantis religiosa Linnaeus, 1758 (praying mantis)

Navicula difficillimoides Hustedt 1957 and N. difficillima Hustedt 1950 (diatoms) Epithets refer to the extreme difficulty of identification.

Oedipina complex (salamander)

Paradoxides paradoxissimus (trilobite)

Proconsul Hopwood, 1933 (Miocene hominoid) "before Consul". Consul was the name of a popular chimpanzee in the Birmingham Zoo, England.

Shuvosaurus inexpectatus Chatterjee, 1993 (theropod dinosaur) so called because its features were more advanced than expected for a Triassic theropod.

Sinornithosaurus millenii Xu, Wang & Wu, 1999) (Chinese dromaeosaur)

Wonderpus photogenicus Hochberg, Norman, and Finn 2007 ("wonderpus" Indo-Malayan octopus) [Molluscan Research 26: 128]

Xanthopan morgani praedicta Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (African sphinx moth) In The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects (1877), Charles Darwin described an orchid from Madagascar, Angraecum sesquepedale, whose flowers have a spur almost 12 inches long, with all the nectar at the bottom. He hypothesized that, for the plant to be fertilized, "In Madagascar there must be moths with proboscides capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches! This belief of mine has been ridiculed by entomologists..." (On the Various Contrivances Whereby British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing, 1877). Alfred Russel Wallace had also predicted its existence in Quarterly Journal of Science (1867). In 1903, this subspecies, with a 12-inch coiled tongue, was discovered as predicted.

Acinonyx (cheetah) From Gk. akineo (no movement) + onyx (claw), referring to the popular belief that cheetahs have non-retractable claws. This is not true. Cheetahs' claws are fully retractable, but their retracted claws remain exposed because, unlike other cats, they lack a skin sheath to cover them.

Agouti Lacepede, 1799 (paca) Not an agouti.

Alligator (alligator) Misspelling of "El lagarto," Spanish for "the lizard."

Ambrosia (ragweed) Named after the food of the gods, this genus is a major cause of allergies.

Apidium (Early Oligocene primate, from Egypt) The name means "little bull" (from Apis and Mnevis, a pair of bulls mentioned on the Rosetta Stone as being used in Egyptian rites); the fossil was orginally thought to be a hoofed animal.

Apterocyclus honoluluensis Waterhouse, 1871 (Kauai Flightless Stag Beetle). Named at the British Natural History Museum from a specimen that was mailed in a package postmarked "Honolulu" (on the island of Oahu). Its geographic restriction to the high elevation forests of the island of Kauai was not realized until later.

Apus apus (common swift) From Greek for "footless" (see also Paradisaea apoda below). The swift's feet are small but far from absent.

Arctocephalos pusillus (seal) "Pusillus" means "very little", but the seal grows to about 3 meters and one tonne. The type specimen was a juvenile not recognized as such at the time.

Arrhinoceratops Parks, 1921 (ceratopsian dinosaur) Name means "without a nose horn face". Parks interpreted the fossil as having "no trace of a horn core" nor even a vestige of one. In 1981 Helen Tyson restudied it, stating, "To deny the presence of a horn core in Arrhinoceratops, which ... possesses a distinct horn-like organ, contributes neither to the homology of this structure nor to an accurate characterization of the genus."

Basilosaurus Harlan, 1834 (Eocene whale) Not a "king lizard", and unrelated to dinosaurs. The original misidentified remains of several animals were combined and sent on a tour as a 130-ft. extinct sea serpent. [Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4: 379-403]

Blattella germanica Linnaeus, 1767 (German cockroach) Native to the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Carried across the Mediterranean to Europe over 1000 years ago.

Campephilus Gray, 1840 (woodpecker) "Campephilus" means "caterpiller-lover", but ivory-billed woodpeckers (C. principalis), the type species of the genus, fed exclusively on the huge grubs of longhorn wood-boring beetles in trees recently dead but still clad in bark; they never fed on caterpillars.

Capsicum chinense Although it is used in Chinese cooking, it comes, like all other Capsica, from the Americas.

Campanulotes defectus Tendiero, 1969 (down louse), and

Columbicola extinctus Malcolmson, 1937 (flight-feather louse) Both these lice were reported from the passenger pigeon and were thought to have gone extinct with it, hence their names, but both are still living on other pigeons. C. defectus turned out to be a previously described species C. flavens.

Chaeropus ecaudatus Ogilby, 1838 (pig-footed bandicoot) The name of this extinct marsupial literally means "pig-foot tailless," but it had the longest tail of any bandicoot. It was described from a specimen which had lost its tail, though accounts differ whether the loss happened during the animal's life or during taxidermy.

Crucibulum extinctorium Lamarck 1822 (gastropod) Not extinct.

Dacelo novaeguineae (Hermann 1783) (common or laughing kookaburra). For novaeguineae = New Guinea. Sonnerat pictured this solely-Australian bird in his New Guinea book and claimed to have collected it there. He had in fact probably been given it by Joseph Banks, whom he met in South Africa in 1770.

Dinosauria Owen, 1842 Means "fearfully great lizard", but many were small and inoffensive, and none were lizards.

Echidna Forster, 1777 (eel) not an echidna.

Epilachna vigintisexpunctata vigintisexpunctata (28-spotted potato ladybird) "Vigintisexpunctata" means 26-spotted.

Epilachna vigintioctopunctata pardalis (26-spotted potato ladybird). "Vigintioctopunctata" means 28-spotted.

Erithacus komadori (robin) common Japanese name: Akahige; and

Erithacus akahige (robin) common Japanese name: Komadori

Fossa fossa (fanaloka, or Madagascan civet) The civet with the common name "fossa" is Cryptoprocta ferox.

Fregata minor (greater frigate bird) It was originally named Pelecanus minor, the little pelican; when moved to a new genus, priority demanded that it still be called minor. The lesser frigate is F. ariel.

Geosaurus Cuvier, 1824 (Late Jurassic to early Cretaceous marine crocodile) Means "earth lizard", but it was strictly aquatic.

Globicephala macrorhynchus Gray, 1846 (pilot whale) John Gray, working from skeletal materials only, guessed this whale had a large beak, or macrorhynchus in Greek. But the pilot whale's head is quite rounded, suggesting anything but a beak.

Gopherus (desert tortoise) not a gopher.

Gymnosperma (Asteraceae) An angiosperm, not a gymnosperm. (photo)

Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) from eastern Asia (it is the National flower of South Korea), not from the Levant.

Hildewintera polonica (cactus) "Polonica" means "from Poland." The cactus is from Bolivia.

Hoplodactylus duvaucelii (Dumeril and Bibron 1836) (Duvaucel's gecko) It is from New Zealand, but the type specimen was believed to have come from India and so was named after French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel (1796-1824) who spent much of his life collecting in India.

Inachus scorpio (spider crab)

Indri indri (indri, a large lemur) The name "indri" comes from a Malagasy exclamation meaning "Look!" French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat mistakenly took this to be the animal's name.

Ixobrychus Billberg, 1828 (dwarf bittern) The name means "mistletoe-roarer". At that time, it was a common belief that bitterns blew into a reed in order to produce their booming call. Billberg was not only mistaken about that, he also confused ixios (reed) with ixos (mistletoe).

Lagerstroemia indica Linnaeus (crepe myrtle) from China, not India. Lagerström visited several Asian countries, and Linnaeus got this plant's origin wrong when he named it. Also, it is a loosestrife, not a myrtle.

Lawsonia inermis (henna) Originally, henna was called by three names, Lawsonia inermis, L. spinosa, and L. alba, referring respectively to a young spineless plant, an adult spiny plant, and a white-flowered variety. When botanists realized that these were the same species, they chose the name inermis ("unarmed") for it, even though henna does have spines.

Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1767 (goose barnacle) "Anatifera" means "goose bearing". It was once widely believed (from the 1100's until the early 1800's) that barnacle geese (Branta "Anas" leucopsis) grew attached to seaside trees by their beaks and clad in shells before dr