Common Names vs Scientific Names

[RyTheTGuy]

I've seen tons of member comments telling people if they want to contribute to the hobby then use the scientific name, instead of the common name......but if everyone uses the scientific names wouldn't that also make it the more commonly used name, right?....it seems like people frown upon it when someone says Mexican Red Knee,Trinidad Chevron, Gooty Sapphire, Brazilian Red and White ect. Why? Not everyone want to say the scientific name, some are long and ridiculous. I use them most of the time but i also like use the common names.

 

[Hobo]

Scientific names never change, or if they do, the old one becomes obsolete and unused. Use a scientific name, and everybody will know what spider you're on about.

Common names change and are made up all the time, and are vague at best.
They are fine for casual conversation with non bug people, but if you're asking for help, opinions, or males, you're going to need to be more specific.

Which tarantulas are these?

Red rump
Striped knee
Tiger rump
Pinktoe
Zebra spider

 

[JC]

I've seen tons of member comments telling people if they want to contribute to the hobby then use the scientific name, instead of the common name......but if everyone uses the scientific names wouldn't that also make it the more commonly used name, right?....it seems like people frown upon it when someone says Mexican Red Knee,Trinidad Chevron, Gooty Sapphire, Brazilian Red and White ect. Why? Not everyone want to say the scientific name, some are long and ridiculous. I use them most of the time but i also like use the common names.

Would you be confident in purchasing a spider simply IDed as a Mexican chicken-crusher birdeating spider? How about a Chinese Demon Flaming Dragon tarantula?

It's all so much easier to identify a species through scientific classification and tell the reader a lot more about the spider like the genus and attributes of that genus vs letting common people/pet shops/etc. run amuck and make up their own names because they think it's 'cooler'. Some common names are shared by several different spiders of different genera on different continents. Learning the names is not that difficult, just takes time.

Do yourself and everyone else a favor and learn to use scientific names, you will be better of in the long run, and will help if you wish to be taken seriously by experienced keepers.

 

[Fran]

Please,

Common names, (let me repeat what other members said already) are the best way to confusion, to screw with ID's , to create a mess and to damage the hobby.
There are so many different common names to the same spider, that it boils my blood to see it written around.(Specially when CERTAIN KNOWN dealers make up their own FOR SELLING PURPOSES)

If you (ex as of anybody) are in the hobby but didnt even bother to learn the scientific name of your own animal, just because is "too long" or seems "ridiculous" , thats beyond lazy and shows quite a lot about the person in question.
SPECIALLY on the Classifieds section.

---------- Post added at 03:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:38 AM ----------

Brazilian giant pink hair
Brazilian salmons
Giant salmon hair
Giant salmon birdeater...

 

[lookerbrian]

Personally I think you should use the scientific name. When I first started in this hobby it was ridiculous how many different names each t has like g Rosea(ex: rose hair, Chilean rose hair, flame rose etc.). Its just easier using the scientific. That way when you're buying or selling you know EXACTLY what you are looking at.

 

[Larkin]

Hi,

You may find the following article interesting:

• Baxter, R. N. 2011. What's In A Name? Journal of the British Tarantula Society 26(1): 3-10.

Regards,
Tomasz

 

[Poxicator]

This topic raises its head in many forums, many times, a quick search will provide plenty of answers although its already been answered above.
When we first join the hobby the use of scientific names seems odd (unless we're used to doing so for some other animal, plant etc). But soon we see some inconsistences and errors plus when it comes to selling or breeding people will want to know that the species they are buying are correct to that advertised.
There are a number of species sold according to their common colour names eg. Singapore Blue which don't reach their full colour until maturity and after which the electric blues subside to a midnight blue. Others are attributed place names such as Brazilian Black and Honduran Curly Hair which are far more likely to have been sourced from other countries - Brazilian Black are exported from Hondurus due to export bans from Brazil and the Curly Hair is more abundant in Costa Rica.
Some species do not have common names, or have only partial common names - check out the Pink Toes (Avicularia), there's loads of them given over 30 different names but not specifically ID'd as different species.
As noted above, the scientific name provides an accurate ID of the tarantula and route to the family eg. Araneae(Spiders)/Theraphosidea(Tarantula)/Brachypelma(Genus)/albopilosum(species). These names are provided by the scientific community before the common names arrive.
It might not be such an issue in the US, although I guess it would be when dealing with South America or Canada, but in Europe the scientific name crosses the language barrier. I can buy tarantula from Germany, France, Poland, Czech. etc knowing that Im dealing with the same species.
Whilst it all seems so much easier to suggest common names because we consider the scientific names to be more adult or professional, Ive yet to hear someone tell me the common for what was probably my first use of a scientific name, way back in early school years - T. rex!

Go with the flow, consider it a step in the right direction, and when you're on board have a chuckle at this, from Stanley Schultz: www.atshq.org/articles/stanholycow.pdf

 

[beckett5000]

I've seen tons of member comments telling people if they want to contribute to the hobby then use the scientific name, instead of the common name......but if everyone uses the scientific names wouldn't that also make it the more commonly used name, right?....it seems like people frown upon it when someone says Mexican Red Knee,Trinidad Chevron, Gooty Sapphire, Brazilian Red and White ect. Why? Not everyone want to say the scientific name, some are long and ridiculous. I use them most of the time but i also like use the common names.

I love my Brazilian species, and they are a good example to your question. The Brazilian black and white is a common name for several species. You could be talking about the A. brocklehursti, A. geniculata, or N. colloratovillosus. All three of these guys have several common names one being the Brazilian black and white. To make sure you are talking about the same T you have to use the scientific name. I like using the common names as well, but I always make sure I have a scientific name to go with it so everyone knows what T I'm talking about. For example I might say "Check out my new pictures of my Acanthoscurria brocklehursti (Giant Black & White Banded).''

 

[DamoK21]

Common name
Red rump
Striped knee
Tiger rump
Pinktoe
Zebra spider

ok then fella, for the hell of it ill take a stab at your names lol

Red Rump: B.vegans/L.difficilus/T.cyaneolum god noes how many more << one reason for scientific names here

Striped knee: A.seemani/L.striatus/to many

Tiger rump: C.fasciatum/H.longipes/hell god noes how many tigers have this common name

Pinktoe: covers EVERY Avic out there

Zebra: i cant be asked the list is endless from Aphonopelma to old worlds such as Haplopelma

This here should help open your eyes, the common names cover so many diffrent spiders, New world and Old world, all requireing diffrent requirments. As oready been said, NOT GOOD

 

[fartkowski]

I am really bad with the common names. At shows people ask me if we have a species and I have no clue what it is.
When I started in the hobby, I made it a point to only learn scientific names.
I found a good way to do this is to label your tanks with only the scientific name. If your like me, and are always looking in on them,
you'll learn it sooner than you think.
Now pronouncing them correctly, that's another story

 

[jt39565]

My own personal experience on this...

I hated scientific names when I got my first T, just last year. Then as I learned more read more and generally began to study up for future purchases I began to see a strong need for univeral classification (scientific names).
One only needs to search earlier post from a new member asking for id on their new purchase which was sold as a "birdeater" and looking for info on the net lead them to hundreds of birdeaters.
Scientific names look overwhelming but in fact are very easy to learn, I can't remember where it is located ( I got a new computer) there is a website that someone recorded the pronunciations to the scientific names. It really helped me out alot.
Thats just my two cents worth.

 

[Chris_Skeleton]

I am really bad with the common names. At shows people ask me if we have a species and I have no clue what it is.
When I started in the hobby, I made it a point to only learn scientific names.
I found a good way to do this is to label your tanks with only the scientific name. If your like me, and are always looking in on them,
you'll learn it sooner than you think.
Now pronouncing them correctly, that's another story

+1. I decided to learn the scientific names instead of the common names when I started out. To be honest, they are 'cooler' than the common names.

 

[crawltech]

..also, the OP tates that some are to long,,,yet he writes "Brazilian red and white"...wich is 21 characters..."A. geniculata" is a lil shorter @ only 11 characters....hmmmm....honestly "brazilian red and white" is long and ridiculous......

 

[Rockstarpets]

Don't listen to people who would rather ridicule than help here OP, I don't think your question is invalid, though I do side with everyone else here for the same reasons.

Another thing I want to add as a benefit. If I know an animal's binomial name I often know a variety of things about that species to give me a base knowledge and some insight to its care, behavior, etc. In no way am I saying that knowing the genus is like a care sheet, but it gives knowledge to base off of. Usually I can pretty quickly tell if it is communal, arboreal/terrestrial, what region it is found, likely approximate size, and even likely temperament.

I will also tell you that once you learn some latin and start to understand the common phrases that come up and the way the words flow it will come to you quickly and easily, it's just a bit of a challenge to learn your first bit; but i promise it is worth the effort.

 

[Rue]

Since it's on topic...I just want to add...it's funny that we insist on using the correct scientific name (vs. the confusing common name/s), but then can't be bothered using the correct presentation...

Genus is capitalized, species is not, and they are italicised OR can also be underlined (although this is becoming obsolete, you still see it a lot in older material, and is handy when handwriting)...

Grammostola pulchra or G. pulchra NOT G. Pulchra

It's not a whole lot of extra effort these days...

 

[Rockstarpets]

Since it's on topic...I just want to add...it's funny that we insist on using the correct scientific name (vs. the confusing common name/s), but then can't be bothered using the correct presentation...

Genus is capitalized, species is not, and they are italicised OR can also be underlined (although this is becoming obsolete, you still see it a lot in older material, and is handy when handwriting)...

Grammostola pulchra or G. pulchra NOT G. Pulchra

It's not a whole lot of extra effort these days...

Have a biology background do we?

 

[paassatt]

I agree that the use of common names promotes laziness and should be shunned. The link for pronunciation of scientific names is in Joe's (xhexdx's) sticky in this subforum dealing with the answers to common questions. The author of that page also has one explaining the meanings of the Latin and Greek words that comprise scientific names- really neat stuff. If you care about your spiders, take the time to learn their scientific classification/taxonomy and you'll be doing both yourself and the hobby a favor. It's not that hard, guys.

 

[Rue]

Have a biology background do we?

...does it show?

 

[TaraculasByte]

great post rythetguy

i was going to say this in my newly created thread "what species lay the most eggs" only because someone gave me crap about using "common names"...the same happened on the other forum that i posted the same question about egg sac size. my question was totally ignored, but insead im told to call them by their scientific names...


As far as the scientific names….here is my opinion about their usage. Thanks to all of you, that insist on using these extremely long and hard to pronounce names, the tatarntula & hobby is very unknown throughout the world.
Think about it, do dogs have strange scientific names? And if they do, how many people would be able to name the breeds off hand, or spell, or pronounce. Very few im sure. But look at how popular dogs are throughout the world, and how many people have pretty basic knowledge of most dog breeds. Or lets look at snakes, if you were to ask people at random, name 3 popular types of snakes. What would they say? Python, boa, anaconda, rattler, gartner? Or would they say some crazy scientific names, like regis, imperator, eunectes, crotalus, columbrid.
Twenty years ago, if you would have asked me what a tarantula was, I would have said a very big spider. While not having any clue, that there was close to 800 different tarantula species. If you asked ten people at random today, “name a type of tarantula” you’d be lucky if one person knew their was more than one type. Why is this? Its because you people don’t use the common names. Ive never heard anyone talk about common names of tarantulas, up until six months ago when I started to research the purchase of T's. To me and most others, a tarantula is just a tarantula. Just a big spider. Im sure if there common names were used more frequently in the past, I would have heard of all the different species years ago. “wow look! A Mexican red knee” or “o-my god, look how big that goliath bird eater is” do you really think the average person is going to want to memorize all these scientific names? “hey look, what a beautiful brachypelma smithi” or “hey look at this huge theraphosa blondi” and those are the easier ones to say. But see if any one has heard of the white collared tarantula, I doubt they’ll say “o you mean the eupalaestrus weijenberghi”
now if you went out on to the streets, and asked people to name a type of spider, what would they say? tarantula, black widow, daddy long leg? NOBODY is going to say the scientic name. why? its because its like speaking a foreign language.
Thanks to all you ignoring the common names, and insisting on trying to be all official with your scientific mumbo jumbo, I and so many others have missed out on a great hobby/pet.
And look, here I am trying to learn and gather data for other commoners (in my thread, about egg sac size), and what happens? “don’t use the common names, you should try and use the scientific names, WHY! so the hobby continues to stay a secret to the rest of the world. “here, we speak in code”…”we don’t use common words”…“get with the program!” its very irritating when i think about it. i mean dont get me wrong, its good to know the scientific names, but its more important to learn and spread the common names first!

I highly doubt that you "T collectors" could know all these excessively long scientific names, but not the short memorable common names that go with them. You people need to embrace the common names, for the prosperity of the hobby.

 

[JC]

Wrong

i was going to say this in my newly created thread "what species lay the most eggs" only because someone gave me crap about using "common names"...the same happened on the other forum that i posted the same question about egg sac size. my question was totally ignored, but insead im told to call them by their scientific names...


As far as the scientific names….here is my opinion about their usage. Thanks to all of you, that insist on using these extremely long and hard to pronounce names, the tatarntula & hobby is very unknown throughout the world.
Think about it, do dogs have strange scientific names? And if they do, how many people would be able to name the breeds off hand, or spell, or pronounce. Very few im sure. But look at how popular dogs are throughout the world, and how many people have pretty basic knowledge of most dog breeds. Or lets look at snakes, if you were to ask people at random, name 3 popular types of snakes. What would they say? Python, boa, anaconda, rattler, gartner? Or would they say some crazy scientific names, like regis, imperator, eunectes, crotalus, columbrid.
Twenty years ago, if you would have asked me what a tarantula was, I would have said a very big spider. While not having any clue, that there was close to 800 different tarantula species. If you asked ten people at random today, “name a type of tarantula” you’d be lucky if one person knew their was more than one type. Why is this? Its because you people don’t use the common names. Ive never heard anyone talk about common names of tarantulas, up until six months ago when I started to research the purchase of T's. To me and most others, a tarantula is just a tarantula. Just a big spider. Im sure if there common names were used more frequently in the past, I would have heard of all the different species years ago. “wow look! A Mexican red knee” or “o-my god, look how big that goliath bird eater is” do you really think the average person is going to want to memorize all these scientific names? “hey look, what a beautiful brachypelma smithi” or “hey look at this huge theraphosa blondi” and those are the easier ones to say. But see if any one has heard of the white collared tarantula, I doubt they’ll say “o you mean the eupalaestrus weijenberghi”
now if you went out on to the streets, and asked people to name a type of spider, what would they say? tarantula, black widow, daddy long leg? NOBODY is going to say the scientic name. why? its because its like speaking a foreign language.
Thanks to all you ignoring the common names, and insisting on trying to be all official with your scientific mumbo jumbo, I and so many others have missed out on a great hobby/pet.
And look, here I am trying to learn and gather data for other commoners (in my thread, about egg sac size), and what happens? “don’t use the common names, you should try and use the scientific names, WHY! so the hobby continues to stay a secret to the rest of the world. “here, we speak in code”…”we don’t use common words”…“get with the program!” its very irritating when i think about it. i mean dont get me wrong, its good to know the scientific names, but its more important to learn and spread the common names first!

I highly doubt that you "T collectors" could know all these excessively long scientific names, but not the short memorable common names that go with them. You people need to embrace the common names, for the prosperity of the hobby.

Are you sure they where 'ignoring' you? Or maybe they were just confused as to what species were on your confusing/uneducated list?

Read the thread, take the advice, and LEARN.