Feature

A Fly Called Iyaiyai

And other true stories of scientific name-calling

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Neal Evenhuis takes it rather well when a reporter phones his office at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and asks, What were you thinking? Some of the scientific names he’s invented . . . . Well, . . . Did he do those things on purpose?

The roseate spoonbill, Ajaia ajaja, did not get its name from a cat pawing a keyboard.