Hello Explorer,

A few people asked me recently why I always add the scientific name when I use a common name, or why I sometimes only refer to a species by its scientific name. The reasons for this are simple. It is because common names are often misleading, inaccurate, and not specific.

Often a common name refers not to a single species, but rather to a group of very similar species. Thus, to identify the specific species based on the common name is often not possible. A good example of this is the Christmas beetles in South Africa. The name Christmas beetles are used for similar looking night flying leaf, flower and fruit chafers that are all brown and around the size of a peanut.

The second issue is the fact that many species or groups of species have multiple common names. Looking at the Christmas beetles they are also known as flying peanuts in English. This gets even more confusing when you start talking to someone in another language, because each language has its own name for the species. A great example of this is the African Thief Ants (Carebara vidua). I asked a Zimbabwean friend of mine to be on the lookout for the African Thief Ant queens, because they are flying now, and only after showing him a queen he laughed and said they call it Tsambarafuta.

The reasons why I always cite the scientific name is simple. The binomial Latin or scientific name is specific to a species, and similar species share the first part of the binomial name, known as the genus, which is like our surnames.

The scientific name is also universal and can be used in and across any language without confusion or the loss of meaning. Therefore, I always add the scientific name when I use the common name.

Some groups, such as birds, butterflies, dragon- and damselflies (in South Africa), and most amphibians have good and clear common names, which can be used with good accuracy and specificity. Most insects, however, are never given common names as there are simply too many insects, and because too many species can easily be confused with one another. Therefore, I often refer to insects only by their scientific name, as they don’t have a common name at all.

Have you ever met two people with the same name at the same place? What was the result of the two people being in the same place and only one of them were called?

If you would like to send me a message with your answers, feel free to do so on Instagram @abugmanslife or via email to [email protected].

Weekly Top Shot: The Flight of Tsambarafuta

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