Arthrenus museorum Linnaeus, 1761 (dermestid beetle) Linnaeus discovered this beetle devouring valuable museum collections of zoological specimens. Dermestid beetles today are used by museums to prepare skeleton specimens by cleaning soft tissue from them.

Boronia hoipolloi M.F.Duretto, 1999 (Queensland citrus relative) Found in a sandstone amphitheatre. [Austrobaileya 5(2): 288]

Cafeteria roenbergensis Fenchel & Patterson, 1988 (bacterivorous zooflagelate) Patterson said the name "was prompted by a pink neon sign affixed to a wall on hostelry in Roenbjerg (Denmark) which was illuminated just as the authors were about to give up on finding a good name for one of the most significant consumers in the world."

Callicebus aureipalatii (Golden Palace monkey) The right to name this Bolivian monkey were put up for option. GoldenPalace.com, a Canadian web-based casino, paid $650,000 for such publicity. The money will generate an estimated $40,000 to $45,000 per year which the Bolivian Wildlife Conservation Society will use to maintain Madidi National Park, probably the most biologically diverse park in the world.

Calliopsis filiorum Rozen, 1963 (andrenid bee) "Filiorum" is Latin for 'children'. So named because Rozen's children waited patiently in the sun while he dug up the nest.

Cardiocondyla pirata Seifert & Frohschammer, 2013 (ant) "The species epithet refers to the black ribbon across the eye reminiscent of a pirate's blindfold." [ZooKeys 301: 13]

Chromis humbug Whitley 1954 (fish)

Corydoras narcissus Nijssen & Isbrucker, 1980 (catfish) Named "narcissus" because the discoverers insisted that the describer name it after them.

Cyclocephala unamas Ratcliffe, 2003 (scarab beetle) Spanish for "one more," since there are so many in the genus.

Drepanovelia millennium Andersen and Weir, 2001 (veliid water strider) The real "Millennium bug". [Invert. Taxonomy 15: 217-258]

Erythroneura ix Myers (leafhopper) This was Myers' 9th species of Erythroneura.

Gaudeamus igitur Simons (Oligocene rodent) The name means "let us therefore be joyful," the first words of a medieval student song. Supposedly, there was something particularly lucky about the fossil.

Goodrichthys (fossil shark)

Halkieria evangelista Conway Morris and Peel, 1995 "The name is chosen as an indication of the fossil's explanatory power for Lower Cambrian palaeontology, and aslo as a pun on Johann, one of the pilots who assisted in field-work." [Phil. Trans. Biol. Sci. 347: 310.]

Histiophryne psychedelica Pietsch, Arnold & Hall, 2009 (fish) Named for the wild swirl of stripes which covers its body.

Hallucigenia Conway Morris, 1977 (Cambrian marine onychophoran) for "the bizarre and dream-like appearance of the animal". The original interpretation was upside-down; what Conway Morris thought were legs were armor spines on its back.

Horridonia horrida (Permian brachiopod) It has nothing more horrible than a set of spines.

Hymenodon reggaeus Karttunen & Back, 1988 (moss) Karttunen collected this moss in Jamaica and named it after the local music.

Indicator indicator Sparrman, 1777 (greater honey-guide) This African bird leads people and honey-badgers to honey nests.

Luckia striki Bellan-Santini & Thurston 1996 (amphipod) Named for the "Lucky Strike" hydrothermal vent field along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Macrocarpaea lacrossiformis J.R. Grant (gentian)

Mycena luxaeterna and Mycena luxperpetua Desjardin et al., 2010 (mushrooms) The epithets, which mean "eternal light" and "perpetual light", come from the words of Mozart's Requiem. The fungi glow 24 hours a day.

Oedipina complex (salamander)

Paradoxides paradoxissimus (trilobite)

Proconsul Hopwood, 1933 (Miocene hominoid) "before Consul". Consul was the name of a popular chimpanzee in the Birmingham Zoo, England.

Shuvosaurus inexpectatus Chatterjee, 1993 (theropod dinosaur) so called because its features were more advanced than expected for a Triassic theropod.

Sinornithosaurus millenii Xu, Wang & Wu, 1999) (Chinese dromaeosaur)

Siphonocryptus zigzag (millipede)

Wonderpus photogenicus Hochberg, Norman, and Finn 2007 ("wonderpus" Indo-Malayan octopus) [Molluscan Research 26: 128]

Xanthopan morgani praedicta Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (African sphinx moth) In The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects (1877), Charles Darwin described an orchid from Madagascar, Angraecum sesquepedale, whose flowers have a spur almost 12 inches long, with all the nectar at the bottom. He hypothesized that, for the plant to be fertilized, "In Madagascar there must be moths with proboscides capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches! This belief of mine has been ridiculed by entomologists..." (On the Various Contrivances Whereby British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilized by Insects, and on the Good Effects of Intercrossing, 1877). Alfred Russel Wallace had also predicted its existence in Quarterly Journal of Science (1867). In 1903, this subspecies, with a 12-inch coiled tongue, was discovered as predicted.

Agra calamitas Erwin, 1986 (carabid) after the destruction befalling its native forest.

Brookesia desperata and B. tristis Glaw et al. 2012 (tiny chameleons) So named because their little remaining habitat in Madigascar is threatened (tristis means "sad"). In contrast, Brookesia confidens lives in a well-protected reserve. [PLoS ONE 7(2)]

Cyprinodon inmemoriam Lozano & Contreras, 1993 (Cachoritto de la Trinidad pupfish) recently extinct.

Drepanis funerea Newton, 1893 (black mamo) Robert Perkins discovered this perching bird on the mountains of Molokai, Hawaii 18 June 1893. Perkins proposed the name "funerea" to Alfred Newton, the species describer. This was not only on account of the birds somber jet black plummage, but because of "the sad fate that too probably awaits the species". Fourteen years later, in June of 1907, a collector shot and killed the last three known birds.

Navicula difficillimoides Hustedt 1957 and N. difficillima Hustedt 1950 (diatoms) Epithets refer to the extreme difficulty of identification.

Sinezona calumnior and S. phenax Geiger, 2012 (sea snail) Both specific epiteths refer to trickery and mischief, because the species were so hard to figure out.

Blamada Lin & Holzschuh, 2013 (longhorn beetle) "The generic name is an arbitrary combination of letters." [Zootaxa 3640: 96]

Megachile pankus Bzdyk, 2012 (leafcutter bee) "The species name 'pankus' is a nonsense combination." [Zookeys 221: 53]