Articles: Scientific Names VS Common Names

Many spiders hobbyist, either newbie or expert, especially who have a conversation with me would be annoyed by me, forcing them to use SCIENTIFIC NAMES over COMMON NAMES. SCIENTIFIC NAMES (Binomial Names) have more advantages rather using COMMON NAMES to describe certain species. COMMON NAMES is not reliable to use, latin names are MUCH EASIER and MORE RESOLUTE. For example, COMMON MISTAKES in describing Malaysian Earth Tiger, which one do u mean? Cyriopagopus thorelli (Simon, 1901) or Cyriopagopus schioedtei (Thorell, 1891)? Isn’t that pain in the abdomen? Worse, both look alike very much to be differentiating by eye. For Your information, C. thorelli is unknown (or at least extremely rare) in captivity, and the species in the pet trade that has often been mistakenly referred to as C. thorelli is actually C. schioedtei. See, the pet trade are already confused..haish.. Let say, someone in Thailand, our neighbor find C. thorelli in the rural area of Southern Thailand, Im very certain the COMMON NAMES will be not Malaysian Earth Tiger maybe proudly RENAME as Danok Earth Tiger perhaps..Haha..

Every recognized/described species on earth (same goes with DINOSAUR and HUMAN) is given a two-part scientific name. This system is called "binomial nomenclature”, or BINOMIAL NAMES. These names are important because they allow people throughout the world to communicate explicitly about animal species, in our community, spiders. This works because there are sets of international rules about how to name animals and zoologists try to avoid naming the same thing more than once, though this does sometimes happen. These naming rules mean that every scientific name is unique. It is common to get confused with similar looking species, for example Grammostola pulchripes and Acanthoscurria musculosa, both rather look the same at a glance. And don’t be surprised if the SCIENTIFIC NAME sometime also describing the species, Grammostola aureostriata (now pulchripes), where aureostriata means “golden stripe” which referring to golden band on Chaco Golden Knee Tarantula (pfffttt!)

Examples of Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Mygalomorphae
Super Family: Theraphosoidea
Family: Theraphosidae
Subfamily: Theraphosinae
Genus: Theraphosa
Species: Theraphosa blondi

Hence, the binomial names are Theraphosa blondi (Latreille, 1804).

SCIENTIFIC NAMES are also designed to tell you something about the animal's relationships with other animals. The SCIENTIFIC NAMES of each species is made up of a generic name (genus) and a specific name (species). For Example, Xenesthis immanis, Xenesthis is referring to the genus (in Malay: Jenis) and immanis referring to SPECIES, the SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION is in order and it is easy to understand. As a Tarantula hobbyist, our collection mainly under the SUBORDER of Mygalomorphae, but only limited to the SUPER FAMILY of Theraphosoidea and the FAMILY of Theraphosidae,

The SUBORDER of Mygalomorphae consist of large other SUPER FAMILY, for example Ctenizoidea, this is a SUPER FAMILY of a Trap-door Spider.

In the FAMILY of Theraphosidae (yeah, tarantula family), there are other SUBFAMILY that group a lot of GENUS under it, there are:


THERAPHOSIDAE SUBFAMILIES
Acanthopelminae
Aviculariinae
Eumenophorinae
Harpactirinae
Ischnocolinae
Ornithoctoninae
Poecilotheriinae
Selenocosmiinae
Selenogyrinae
Spelopelminae
Stromatopelminae
Theraphosinae
Thrigmopoeinae

Theraphosinae, this is most common GENUS for the New World Tarantula Species belong, at least 40 GENUS are in the FAMILY,

THERAPHOSINAE GENUS
Acanthoscurria
Aenigmarachne
Aphonopelma
Bonnetina
Brachypelma
Bumba Lennoni – New Genus, yes, lennoni after John Lennon (Why tarantula, not beetles?)
Chromatopelma
Citharacanthus
Clavopelma
Crassicrus
Cyclosternum
Cyriocosmus
Cyrtopholis
Euathlus
Eupalaestrus
Grammostola
Hapalopus
Hapalotremus
Hemirrhagus
Homoeomma
Lasiodora
Lasiodorides
Magulla
Maraca
Megaphobema
Melloleitaoina
Metriopelma
Neostenotarsus
Nesipelma
Nhandu
Ozopactus
Pamphobeteus
Paraphysa
Phormictopus
Plesiopelma
Proshapalopus
Pseudhapalopus
Reversopelma
Schizopelma
Sericopelma
Sphaerobothria
Stichoplastoris
Theraphosa
Thrixopelma
Tmesiphantes
Vitalius
Xenesthis

And only few GENUS in this FAMILY is well known in the hobby. Haaa..it a lot cooler and informative to use this method So, this is why you should use the binomial names instead of lousy unworthy confusable (hahaha) COMMON NAME..They are same anywhere in the world, so the risk of miscommunication/error in the SPECIES desired is less significant (lesser, not 0%), especially when you trying to get specific SPECIES from oversea dealer. Names are all one language and usually latin so they are universal for the entire world and all countries use them the same. That way no one organism is named more than one name. It helps classify them better that way and keep their species alike. But yeah, some common or widespread species like OBT, CGK or GBB, is well known for their Acronym. So, it okay to use them rather then lose your tongue to say Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens, use GBB instead...hahahaha..

P/S: Im not Biologist, just an Enthusiast..

Cheerss! (Sky Juice please… Im a Non Alcoholic Muslim..Hahaha)