A few words on scientific names

[Kurt]

Or get there really early.

[DogRetepCow]

I have to say, as a new member to this forum and a person new to frogs, it can be a little.....frustrating having to constantly look up these scientific names people refer to, in order to figure out what animal they're talking about. Why not just say, "Budgett frog, tomato frog, barking tree frog", etc. It seems much easier. I'll look up a scientific name and be like, "Oh, it's a waxy monkey leaf frog... Why didn't they just say that?" I haven't quite got used to it yet. Props though to the people here who have all these scientific names and spellings memorized, and know which names go to which frog. Even if I think that's a little bit crazy

[Baelari]

Because common names can be vague. I think there's two types of Waxy monkey tree frogs, for example (I could be mistaken). And some animals have more than one common name.

[clownonfire]

And let's be blunt... their scientific names give much more details than common name... You'll have the genus and the species in the latin name... which is helpful and already tells you a great deal about the frog.

And as previously said, a frog can have too many names. For example, a Scaphiophryne gottlebei can be a Malagasy Rainbow Frog, Ornate Hopper, Rainbow Burrowing Frog, Red Rain Frog, Gottlebe's Narrow-mouthed Frog...

[ViperJr]

What Eric and Baelari said it both true!

And also, think about this.
You live in England and you have a friend who want's to send you a "Blacksnake". You think it's the harmless Black racer from USA, but instead you recive a deadly Blacksnake from Australia! Not so fancy!

Common names are extremly good to create uncertainty and confusion when talking to people across the world. With the scientific names, you always know for sure. If you are only talking to people within you area, then sure, it might be somewhat less needed.
On top of this, some species not does have a common name in every language.

[DogRetepCow]

Yeah, that makes sense. Like how American Green Tree frogs and Whites tree frogs can both be refered to as Green Tree Frogs

[Eric Walker]

Hyla marmorata- south American bird poop frog

Theloderma asperum- malaysian bird poop frog

big difference. One is very commen in the us because it lays about 1000 eggs at a time. The other not so commen because of clutches of eggs under 10.

know your bird poop.

[Faith]

I have to admit, I didn't know this Thanks for the post and info!

[Heatheranne]

Now your speaking in my language , thanks Kurt! Lol! Medical...Latin

[Kristen]

Yeah, that makes sense. Like how American Green Tree frogs and Whites tree frogs can both be refered to as Green Tree Frogs

When I first joined the forum I was so confused at that! Cause in Australia they are called Green tree frogs, and when I called them that everyone always said "No thats not a green tree frog, its a Whites!"
So now obviously Latin names are much better :P

[arielgasca420]

I have always heard that binomial nomenclature is a universal language. I didnt know people get so technical with it as far as upper case and lower case. I know its the correct way of writing, but It doesnt bother me as long as its spelled right and in the correct order.
I will be taking a class for CA plant identification in a few weeks. Latin doesnt always describe a plant or animal better than the common name. some scientific names have nothing to do with the plants characteristics at all.
the only times I find these names useful is breeding and when you need some serious in depth detail on the creatures habitat and anatomy. a friend of mine is going to school to be a veterinarian in France and these names come quite in handy since my french is insufficient.

[Namio]

When writing a scientific name, its only the genus (the first part of the name) that should be capitalized. The species and subspecies (when applicable) should never be capitalized. Also, the entire name should appear in italics. Examples; Agalychnis callidryas and Ambystoma mavortium mavortium.

I would also like to build onto what Kurt had suggested.

Once you've mentioned a species name in a body of text, the next time around you can shorten the genus by using its first letter followed by a period, capitalized, of course.

For example, "Dendrobates leucomela is a cute little frog.... but D. leucomela also occurs in other regions..."

Also, once you've mentioned a specific species in a text, other members of the same genus can also be abbreviated by using the first letter of that genus.

For example, "Dendrobates azureus is always blue, whereas D. auratus can sometimes be blue while D. leucomela is yellow."

One conventional way when you're actually writing scientific names with a pen and paper, is that we underline both the genus and species epithet.

For example, it would appears as such on paper (without the quotation marks), "Dendrobates tinctorius"

By the way, the genus of "Dendrobates tinctorius" is "Dendrobates" while the species epithet is "tinctorius." The genus is kind of like our last (family) name, which reveals a kinship where the epithet is nothing but an arbitrarily given name. Just because two guys share a name like "Michael" it does not make them brothers.

[earthtiger]

When writing a scientific name, its only the genus (the first part of the name) that should be capitalized. The species and subspecies (when applicable) should never be capitalized. Also, the entire name should appear in italics. Examples; Agalychnis callidryas and Ambystoma mavortium mavortium.

being a little bit nitpicking:
the species name is set together from the genus name + species epithet, both together is the species name => I capitalize the species name, because the first part of the name (the genus) should be capitalized, but not the species epithet as you mentioned.

...this might be already mentioned in this thread - I haven't red all posts.