Animals Named for What They Are Not
Our culture has the habit of making misnomers a household name and if they had been used for a period of time they are being accepted as though they had been normal and nobody complains about it. My purpose is not to contradict what is socially accepted but just to express my amusement in writing thinking about why it so happened giving me a fitting ground to write this article.
1. Guinea Pig - Guinea pigs are too small in size to be actually taken as pigs and record shows that they didn’t actually came from Guinea. They belong to the cavia porcellus species and order rodentia just like the marmots, prairie dogs, beavers and squirrels. They were traced to come from the vicinity of the Andes in South America as early as 5000 BC where they had been domesticated. Their utilization as model organism became widespread in the 19th to the 20th century and they still remain as the common choice of specimen for research studies.
2. Prairie Dogs - Prairie dogs were definitely not dogs. They belong to the genus cynomys and order rodentia just like the marmuts, squirrels, guinea pigs and beavers. Described as a burrowing rodent in the grasslands of North America, they have been known to be distributed in 5 species. Black tailed, white tailed, Gunnison, Utah and Mexican prairie dogs were the 5 species depending upon the location which they could be found. They are primarily herbivorous and would eat all types of vegetables and fruits causing them to be considered as pests by most farmers. Their warning call when endangered gave rise to their name which resembles a dog’s bark.
3. Ladybugs or Ladybirds - These names had be referred to the Coccinellidae family of beetles which are neither bugs or birds and obviously a lady. The term "ladybirds" is commonly utilized in UK, Ireland, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and some parts of Canada in relation to these family of beetles while "ladybugs" is commonly used in North America.
4. Jellyfish - Another misnomer in marine life is the case of the jellyfish. Everyone knows they are not actually fishes but were popularly referred to as one. Belonging to phylum cnidaria and subphylum medusozoa with 5 classes under it, the hydrozoa, scyphozoa, cubozoa, staurozoa and polypodiozoa jellyfish can be found over all the world’s oceans, from the surface to the deep.
5. Black Widow - A black widow refers to certain types of highly venomous spider species found in western regions of the US, Australia and certain parts of Europe. As we normally refer the term “widow” among us humans to a woman whose spouse has died and has not remarried, we can’t actually call these type of spiders widows because they were definitely not the “marrying type” (or depends on how you think of it). But the strange fact that these cannibalistic insects has the habit of eating their partners after mating gave rise to why they were called as such. So the next time you hear of a beautiful widow showing up by your neighborhood think otherwise before jumping to conclusions. Be sure she’s not wearing black.
http://factoidz.com/5-animals-named-for-what-they-...
