Scientific Names

[phormingochilus]

Now that's amazing - you've learned all 878 species name by heart? ;-p

Anyone else who wish to complete that task please rehearse this checklist which is the official scientific spider checklist: Platnick's List. Have great fun ;-p

Søren (from Denmark as well ;-)

Where i come from (Denmark), nobody uses the common names, only the scientiffic names. So when i was a noob, i only had the scient. name, and it took me only a couple month to now them all.

Now that im using this board.....i get confused some times, because lots of people here, uses the common name....and i dont know what they are talking about

It's crazy to think of how many common names there is for G. rosea.: chilean rose, Rose haired tarantula, chilean rose hair, ect,ect....Whats up with this????? it's much easyer to write G.rosea, i think!!!

 

[phormingochilus]

What make you think it doesn't have a real name? Or that it warrants a real name? It's "Just" a matter of identification ... which btw can be quite a hassle especially with the genus Chilobrachys ... Most Chilobrachys species I see for sale in the hobby are to me merely colour varieties of C. andersoni. With the exception of C. fimbriatus and the dark burmese kind (which could be any of the following or something alltogether different: C. bicolour, C. brevipes, C. flavopilosus, C. oculatus, C. pococki, C. sericeus or C. soricinus ...) ;-) And before anyone can tag a new name on a Chilobrachys (which "someone" did with the C. andersoni look-alike - C. huahini) he/she need to examine all the type series of the allready described species. Sure there will be some lumbing together I believe ;-)

Søren

When is Chilobrachys sp. Asian Smoky gonna get a real name? Schmidt, oh, Schmidt...

 

[David Burns]

Hmm, I'd personally disagree with that. "Baboon spider" and "Bird Eater" are quite valid descriptions for tarantulas because they are the name given to them by the local people.

Other examples are Asian burrowers (Earth Tigers) and Poecilotheria (Tree Tiger/Tiger spider)

The problem as I see it is that Baboon spider refers to 87 different varieties of Tarantulas from Africa and Birdeater refers to a couple of hundered T species from south america and the Carribean. So it's hard to know what spider your refering to.

 

[FryLock]

Remember to be the real master you must be able to say all the old syn's too and be able to pronounce them in English and classic Latin ;P , plus like Søren
has said a lot of spiders in the hobby seem to be races or colour morphs even if Theraphosid subspecies are not allowed we could really do with some kind of standardized system of naming forms to help keep them pure :?

 

[phormingochilus]

There's a hobby way in use already: Genus species "race" - like in Pterinochilus murinus "Usumbara" ;-)

That is not scientific nor taxonomic at all but it tend to slow down the mix-up of different geographic varieties.

All the best
Søren

Remember to be the real master you must be able to say all the old syn's too and be able to pronounce them in English and classic Latin ;P , plus like Søren
has said a lot of spiders in the hobby seem to be races or colour morphs even if Theraphosid subspecies are not allowed we could really do with some kind of standardized system of naming forms to help keep them pure :?

 

[FryLock]

Yes it always seems to suffice in reptiles and fish but iv noticed some clever ppl start to change the location name with the common name i guess in the end it comes down to just the dedicated hobbyist keeping clean stock, that said its probably far less important then mixing clearly definable species as man can always move members of one population of a species to a the location of a different population I would guess this happens a lot with logging and food production :?.

 

[RichardDegville]

The codes of international zoological nomenclature give some basic rules about formation of species names. For a name to be considered properly published and acceptable ( validly published according to the ICZN I and available accordingly)The name needs be in latin with the sp name starting with a lowercase letter. this is why common names mean nothing as any one can make one up! and the amout of common names within the hobby for one sp is astonishing. This can lead to confusuion when its time to breed thus causing unknown hybrids to flood the pet trade the use of latin/scientific names also helps prevent this
within the hobby its self there is an unwritten language as such were wer use abbreviations of known sp such as Usambara,pokie,golly,baboon etc this personally I think just saves finger ache and misspelling of latin names + you dont look like a plum when you cannot pronounce the latin names! lol

 

[protheus]

you dont look like a plum when you cannot pronounce the latin names!

"Look like a plum?"

So, I just picked up this African Giant Killer Rose-Red-Kneed Orange Bird-Eating Ornamental Spiney Earth Baboon Spider...

Chris