Politically incorrect names.

[Jack Harrison]

Pete's 'Rarities' is due to arrive in the next couple of days.  Meanwhile, I have been looking at the species list on ukb.

This struck me as having the most racist, and sexist name imaginable.

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species ... es=antalus

As a matter of urgency, it needs to be renamed - as of course do the 'whites'.  And Purple Emperor - it smacks of British Imperialism.  As for species named 'small' or 'large' something or other - the mind boggles at the insensitivity.

It is essential to remember that this is the 21st century.

Jack

[Padfield]

I know you jest, Jack, but what used to be the wide path of kindness, tolerance and sensitivity has become a terrifying tightrope, where jeering onlookers wait for you to trip and fall. I find it disheartening, as I still want to be kind, tolerant and sensitive, but I can't be bothered to keep up with the latest rules.

That said, the world of colonial butterfly names does include some that make me glad I stick to Latin binomials (Orsotriaena medus is a case in point, though Indian and Thai books use the traditional, offensive name without compunction). Nearer to home, the Swiss still call Minois dryas 'le grand nègre des bois', (https://lepido.ch/espece/grand-negre-des-bois/). So far as I know, this is not considered offensive, but at least one friend of mine (ten years my senior, so not a youngster) now calls it 'la dryade'.

The world of Latin names contains more humour and poetry than political incorrectness. Who got Discolampa past the ICZN for the name of a genus of Lycaenids whose uppersides are UV blue ?

Guy

PS - I think 'purple emperor' smacks more of Roman imperialism ...

[David M]

Modern life is turning increasingly into a perpetual 'Room 101'. I won't be sorry to depart it.

I worry what might be the reaction in the Canaries if someone asks me why I'm on a roundabout near a coastal town and I say that I'm hanging around to see if I can find any African Migrants.

How long will it be before Great Tits, Boobies and Shags are forced to be known by different names?

I sometimes think we need another war.

[essexbuzzard]

And don’t get me started on birds.

The Arctic squa has become the Arctic jaeger, the great northern diver is now a loon...

Grrr.

[Neil Freeman]

I have seen a few 'discussions' on this subject on some moth groups, usually started when someone asks if the Gypsy Moth is going to be renamed. These threads are often quite tongue in cheek but invariably attract a number of the usual characters who seem determined to live sad humourless lives.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Jack Harrison]

In Easter Ross, there is the small town of Dornoch.  In a café I asked the waitress if the residents were known as Doorknochers.  Poor girl near spilt my coffee as she collapsed in laughter.  

A little further south from Dornoch on the Cromarty Firth is an industrial area - rig and other marine servicing.  The town is called Nigg.   Fortunately (bearing in mind my pathetic humour), it doesn't have a café.

Jack

[Sooty]

I once asked a friend, who was born in the Danish town of Aarhus, if people from Aarhus were known as Aarhusholes.

[Roger Gibbons]

Some of the scientific names aren't too clever, either.

Blind Ringlet is Erebia pharte and the subspecies that occurs in the Alps is, wait for it, phartina.

The high altitude form of the Sooty Copper is subalpinus. I'm always careful how I pronounce that.

PS - I think 'purple emperor' smacks more of Roman imperialism ...

Yes, wasn't this tyrrhenian purple, a very expensive dye that signified wealth and nobility in Roman times, purple togas etc.

Roger

[millerd]

Yes, wasn't this tyrrhenian purple, a very expensive dye that signified wealth and nobility in Roman times, purple togas etc.

Roger

Yes, I think it was made from some kind of rare shellfish (of all things).

When you think about it, the world of lepidoptera is a very inclusive one. After all, we think nothing unusual about concepts like male Painted Ladies, for example.

Dave

[David M]

..The high altitude form of the Sooty Copper is subalpinus. I'm always careful how I pronounce that.

Me too. I put the stress here: sub-alp-inus. That takes care of it.

[aeshna5]

And don’t get me started on birds.

The Arctic squa has become the Arctic jaeger, the great northern diver is now a loon...

Grrr.

That's nothing to what has been proposed; though I don't know any UK birders who say loons or jaegers.

The American Ornithological Society has proposed to change all English names that are named after people in their geographic area. Pure craziness in my opinion. This will affect the names of about 90 species!!!

[Chris L]

Modern life is turning increasingly into a perpetual 'Room 101'. I won't be sorry to depart it.

Yes, modern life is so incredibly disheartening and disappointing isn't it David. I find that heading in to the meadows and the woods and the solitude is the only way to escape the harsh realities of life.

[David M]

Correct, Chris. I think I'd go insane if it weren't for nature. At least that never changes (although there's increasingly less of it these days).

[Jack Harrison]

I was once in a Beechwood near Cambridge looking for the reported Bramblings.  It was a cold, drizzly winter's day and I wore a raincoat.  A woman asked me: "where is your dog?" 

I suppose that a 60 something man wearing a flasher's mac might have looked suspicious, especially without the almost-mandatory dog.

[jenks]

I have to join in. In 1995 10 of us from Glamorgan Bird Club spent a week birding on the Shetland Isles. There is a village on the main island called Twatt and a look through the local telephone directory showed there were quite a few Twatts listed. I have a photo of the 10 of us standing by the village sign. A bunch of T***** you could say. I can only assume it means something else in Shetland-ees. Hugh Harrop, ex-Cardiff who now acts as a guide on the island, was unable to enlighten us.

Jenks.

[Jack Harrison]

Also a Twatt on Orkney. On my last visit to the island, the Twatt Church was for sale.

Jack