Taxacom: taxonomy in TV fiction

[John Grehan]

Perhaps some on this list have cringed when reading or watching a work of
fiction only to see some taxonomic reference bungled with indifference.  So
its nice to occasionally see quite sound taxonomic references made in some
otherwise entirely fictional accounts. In TV fiction, there was one case of
a beetle turning up on an island (fictional) and its scientific binomial
was correctly stated (I had to look it up). In the story it was recognized
that the beetle was endemic to some other island (or two) which raised a
problem as to how it turned up on the fictional island. Did they
immediately think of chance dispersal? Nope :) Another case referenced the
black witch moth, and again scientific binomial correctly stated. And
referenced being seen on the Galapagos, again a correct locality for the
species.

Nice to see that even in serial soap operas that the writers make some
effort to get their taxonomic context correct. Perhaps taxonomy is not yet
dead after all.

Cheers, John Grehan

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