[Taxacom] names for non-existing species

[George Shepherd]

Leo Lionni's "Parallel Botany" is a remarkable botanical "spoof", rather 
like the Rhinograde text, but describes "parallel plants' rather than 
animals, with dozens of invented species  and genera. There is also 
"Nonsense Botany" by Edward Lear,  but this does not have seriously 
formed names (Manypeeplia upsidownia, etc.).

On 25/3/2013 15:03, David Campbell wrote:
>> Rafinesque, C. S. 1820. Ichthyologia Ohioensis, or Natural History of the
>> fishes inhabiting the River Ohio and its tributary streams. W. G. Hunt.
>> Lexington, Kentucky. 90 pp.
>>           John J. Audubon's revenge on Rafinesque for smashing Audubon's
>> violin when he threw it at a bat in their cabin while trying to collect the
>> specimen, resulted in Audubon later sending fake drawings of fishes to
>> Rafinesque.  Rafinesque described them in his book.
>>
> In addition to fish, Audubon provided a drawing of a purported
> mollusk-like animal with three valves, which Rafinesque named and then
> renamed.
>
> I don't have details handy, but somewhere I read an ichthyology text
> mentioning a fake Australian fish, supposedly kin to lungfish, which
> was served to the hoax victim.  He ate the specimen and then published
> a description despite the lack of type material.
>
> I've heard of hypothetical trilobites, posited on Haeckelian
> recapitulation assumptions, having been named, but do not know more.
>
> The Rhinograde text includes names for a number of co-occuring
> organisms, though not described in as much detail as the rhinogrades
> themselves.
>