15 Scientific Names of Species That Sound Completely Obscene

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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