Nutty Nomenclature
All species of organism are given their own specific name by the taxonomist who first describes them. Every now and again the taxonomists allow themselves to have a little bit of fun. This is our guide to some more mischievously named species.
Name: Ia io
Don’t get it? It's the shortest scientific name of all.
What is it? The great evening bat. Only last year this bat was discovered to make a meal of birds as well as insects. Having a wingspan of around 45cm it's considerably larger than a lot of small birds.
Where is found? East and South-East Asia.
When was it first named? 1908.
Who deserves the credit? British zoologist, Oldfield Thomas. Working at the Natural History Museum, Thomas described about 2000 new species and subspecies of mammal. He committed suicide in 1929, aged 71, shortly after the death of his wife.
))
Is there a picture? Strangely no. The great evening bat is pretty common across SE Asia and the Orient, but no-one seems to have thought to take a photo of it. However, it's likely to look similar to the great noctule (pictured) which was the first species of bat to be named as a bird-muncher in 2001. Check out some other weird species names here.
Null's other regular features:
Monday: Phunny Phobias
Wednesday: Doctor Doctor
Thursday: Peculiar Periodicals
Friday: End of week timewasters
Share this
