15 Scientific Names of Species That Sound Completely Obscene
![15 Scientific Names of Species That Sound Completely Obscene](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/0/908780_320x180.jpg)
It’s tough being a scientist. You have to pay attention to tiny differences between things that might seem to any else to be entirely identical — to a layperson, a wasp is a wasp, but to someone who has dedicated their life to studying the idiosyncrasies between species, it might be glaringly obvious that, say, Wasp A’s mandibles are completely different to Wasp B’s, and it is in fact an exciting new species.
Concentrating on things at such a minute, hyper-intelligent level can sometimes mean missing out on bigger things, like that you’ve accidentally called your new species something that sounds a lot like “the shit-covered butthole wasp.”
There are more filthy-sounding species out there than you might expect. Nothing undermines the majesty of nature as effortlessly as poorly thought out nomenclature — like giving an elegant species a Latin name that sounds a bit like someone’s dick.
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Science’s Most Well-Hung Salamander
![Batrachuperus longdongensis is named after the Longdong stream in which it can be found, and not because, as one might think, it's sporting a chunky hog. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/3/905973.jpg)
The Fun-Sounding Fungus
![The mushroom Clitocybe nuda is also known as the wood blewit, which still sounds mildly saucy. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/2/905972.jpg)
The Lone Star Butthole Bug
![The genus of leafhoppers known as Texananus are named after the state they were discovered in, and no more - the presence of a butthole is just a quirk of Latin, honest. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/1/905971.jpg)
The Grass That Sounds Like an 11-Year-Old Named It
![Also known as gamba grass, Andropogon gayanus can grow up to nine feet in height. That's a really big gayanus. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/7/0/905970.jpg)
The Grape-Fucking Fungus
![A fungus mainly found on wine grapes, Botryotinia fuckeliana is named after the 19th-century German botanist Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Leopold Fuckel, a man who, if he were around today, would have every email he wrote sent to people's spam folders. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/8/905968.jpg)
The Extinct Beast Telling You to Do WHAT?
![Depending on what syllables you stress, Dolichuranus - a pretty cool-looking creature from the Triassic era - either sounds like a normal enough species name or a very specific and quite difficult command. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/9/905969.jpg)
A Cute Bird, or a Poop in a Silly Place?
![The American robin, an adorable little creature, has the scientific name Turdus migratorius, which sounds like the name you'd give a piece of shit that had traveled somewhere it shouldn't. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/5/905965.jpg)
No, That’s a Terrible Place to Put a Spider
![There are good places for spiders and bad places for spiders. The worst possible place for a spider, however, is suggested by the name of one of its species, discovered in Inyo County, California, Eremobates inyoanus. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/1/905961.jpg)
The Crane That Does What to a What Now?
![The wattled crane, an endangered species of bird found in Africa, is the only species in its genus. That genus would raise eyebrows, particularly in Britain: Bugeranus. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/6/905966.jpg)
The Beetle You Can’t Google
![Idiosyncrasies of language can mean two things share a name. This is what happened with the beetle Colon rectum, a leiodidae beetle named by Melville Hatch in 1933, an interesting beetle you should never do a Google Image search for. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/7/905967.jpg)
A Nine-Year-Old’s Favorite Beetle
![The stag beetle Dorcus titanus titanus - one dork, two tits, two anuses s - is an incredible looking thing that sounds like it was named by the naughtiest kid in a terrible school. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/2/905962.jpg)
Snails’ Smelliest Relative
![A subcategory of gastropods - the group that contains snails and slugs - that's defined by a lack of ridges in their shells is known as Fartulum. Every species within the group is tiny and pretty much looks like it was plucked from someone's nose. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/4/905964.jpg)
The Suspicious-Sounding Ancient Folk Remedy
![The milk thistle is an interesting plant, suggested in ancient folk medicine to possess various health benefits including liver regeneration and hepatitis treatment. This is undermined slightly by its genus name Silybum. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/5/9/905959.jpg)
Christmas Tree or Hard-On? Difficult to Know
![The human brain is an odd thing. The scientific name of the evergreen tree Pinus rigida, should immediately suggest, ah yes, a pine. It just doesn't work like that. It sounds like a rock-hard boner. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/3/905963.jpg)
The Wasp That Can Do No Such Goddamned Thing
![The wasp subgenus Pison contains 145 different species so far, with many remaining undefined - there will eventually be many more named, defined species within it. One species, defined in 1988, sports the delightful name Pison eu. No! Please don't! CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/9/6/0/905960.jpg)