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48-403: Tetraspididae Hagenmüller , 1885 Arionidae , common name the "roundback slugs" or "round back slugs" are a taxonomic family of air-breathing land slugs , terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Arionoidea . The distribution of this family of slugs includes Nearctic , Palearctic and Oriental regions. Unlike some slugs, European Arionidae have no keel on

96-591: A fairly long body, but is distinctly thick-set and broad across the back. Its skin is remarkably loose, and allows the animal to turn and twist freely within it. The skin around the neck is 6 mm (0.24 in) thick, an adaptation to fighting conspecifics . The head is small and flat, with a short muzzle. The eyes are small, and the ears are little more than ridges on the skin, another possible adaptation to avoiding damage while fighting. The honey badger has short and sturdy legs, with five toes on each foot. The feet are armed with very strong claws, which are short on

144-405: A larger version of that of a marbled polecat . The dental formula is: 3.1.3.1 3.1.3.1 . The teeth often display signs of irregular development, with some teeth being exceptionally small, set at unusual angles or absent altogether. Honey badgers of the subspecies signata have a second lower molar on the left side of their jaws, but not the right. Although it feeds predominantly on soft foods,

192-455: A median of 8.4 kg (19 lb). Skull length is 13.9–14.5 cm (5.5–5.7 in) in males and 13 cm (5.1 in) for females. There are two pairs of mammae . The honey badger possesses an anal pouch which, unusual among mustelids, is eversible , a trait shared with hyenas and mongooses . The smell of the pouch is reportedly "suffocating", and may assist in calming bees when raiding beehives. The skull greatly resembles

240-485: A particularly common name is used varies; some common names have a very local application, while others are virtually universal within a particular language. Some such names even apply across ranges of languages; the word for cat , for instance, is easily recognizable in most Germanic and many Romance languages . Many vernacular names, however, are restricted to a single country and colloquial names to local districts. Some languages also have more than one common name for

288-433: A single chemical, such as copper sulfate , which may refer to either copper(I) sulfate or copper(II) sulfate. Sometimes common names are created by authorities on one particular subject, in an attempt to make it possible for members of the general public (including such interested parties as fishermen, farmers, etc.) to be able to refer to one particular species of organism without needing to be able to memorise or pronounce

336-490: A well-developed atrium and the epiphallus that produces spermatophores . In this family, the number of haploid chromosomes lies between 21 and 30 (according to the values in this table). Family Arionidae has no subfamilies according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 . The type genus of the family is Arion Férussac , 1819 Genera within the family Arionidae include: The parasites of

384-470: A wide range of animals and seems to subsist primarily on small vertebrates . Honey badgers studied in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park preyed largely on geckos and skinks (47.9% of prey species), gerbils and mice (39.7% of prey). The bulk of its prey comprised species weighing more than 100 g (3.5 oz) such as cobras , young African rock python and South African springhare . In

432-486: Is a global system that attempts to denote particular organisms or taxa uniquely and definitively , on the assumption that such organisms or taxa are well-defined and generally also have well-defined interrelationships; accordingly the ICZN has formal rules for biological nomenclature and convenes periodic international meetings to further that purpose. The form of scientific names for organisms, called binomial nomenclature ,

480-407: Is common during these events, with one incident resulting in the death of 17 Muscovy ducks and 36 chickens . Because of the toughness and looseness of their skin, honey badgers are very difficult to hunt with dogs. Their skin is hard to penetrate, and its looseness allows them to twist and turn on their attackers when held. The only safe grip on a honey badger is on the back of the neck. During

528-461: Is in these remarks from a book on marine fish: In scientific binomial nomenclature, names commonly are derived from classical or modern Latin or Greek or Latinised forms of vernacular words or coinages; such names generally are difficult for laymen to learn, remember, and pronounce and so, in such books as field guides, biologists commonly publish lists of coined common names. Many examples of such common names simply are attempts to translate

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576-459: Is known to savagely and fearlessly attack almost any other species when escape is impossible, reportedly even repelling much larger predators such as lion and hyena. Bee stings, porcupine quills, and animal bites rarely penetrate their skin. If horses , cattle , or Cape buffalos intrude upon a honey badger's burrow, it will attack them. In the Cape Province it is a potential prey species of

624-461: Is primarily a carnivorous species and has few natural predators because of its thick skin, strength and ferocious defensive abilities. Viverra capensis was the scientific name used by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1777 who described a honey badger skin from the Cape of Good Hope . Mellivorae was proposed as name for the genus by Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr in 1780. Mellivorina

672-454: Is superficially similar to the noun-adjective form of vernacular names or common names which were used by non-modern cultures. A collective name such as owl was made more precise by the addition of an adjective such as screech . Linnaeus himself published a flora of his homeland Sweden, Flora Svecica (1745), and in this, he recorded the Swedish common names, region by region, as well as

720-650: Is the Cape dikkop (or "gewone dikkop", not to mention the presumably much older Zulu name "umBangaqhwa"); Burhinus vermiculatus is the "water dikkop". The thick joints in question are not even, in fact, the birds' knees, but the intertarsal joints —in lay terms the ankles. Furthermore, not all species in the genus have "thick knees", so the thickness of the "knees" of some species is not of clearly descriptive significance. The family Burhinidae has members that have various common names even in English, including " stone curlews ", so

768-463: Is the case with say, ginkgo , okapi , and ratel . Folk taxonomy , which is a classification of objects using common names, has no formal rules and need not be consistent or logical in its assignment of names, so that say, not all flies are called flies (for example Braulidae , the so-called "bee lice") and not every animal called a fly is indeed a fly (such as dragonflies and mayflies ). In contrast, scientific or biological nomenclature

816-495: Is titled to the left. The kidney is circular (surrounding aorta). Cephalic retractors tend to divide into separate branches attached independently to the posterior part of pallial complex. The shell is strongly reduced in places, most often completely buried in the mantle, usually of loose crystals or plate-like. Genitalia : the penis is present only in some species, epiphallus is present in nearly all of them. Male copulatory organs are generally reduced, their role being taken over by

864-776: The African leopard and African rock pythons . The honey badger has the least specialised diet of the weasel family next to the wolverine. It accesses a large part of its food by digging it out of burrows . It often raids beehives in search of both bee larvae and honey . It also feeds on insects , frogs, tortoises , turtles , lizards , rodents , snakes, birds and eggs. It also eats berries , roots and bulbs . When foraging for vegetables, it lifts stones or tears bark from trees. Some individuals have even been observed to chase away lion cubs from kills. It devours all parts of its prey, including skin, hair, feathers, flesh and bones, holding its food down with its forepaws. It feeds on

912-506: The Indian subcontinent . Because of its wide range and occurrence in a variety of habitats, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List . It is the only living species in the genus Mellivora and in the mustelid subfamily Mellivorinae. Despite its name, the honey badger does not closely resemble other badger species; instead, it bears more anatomical similarities to weasels . It

960-705: The Old and New World , and the giant, long-legged Ekorus from Kenya. In the 19th and 20th centuries, 16 zoological specimens of the honey badger were described and proposed as subspecies . As of 2005 , 12 subspecies are recognised as valid taxa. Points taken into consideration in assigning different subspecies include size and the extent of whiteness or greyness on the back. [REDACTED] ratel (Sparrman, 1777) typicus (Smith, 1833) vernayi (Roberts, 1932) [REDACTED] ratel (Horsfield, 1851) ratelus (Fraser, 1862) [REDACTED] buchanani (Thomas, 1925) The honey badger has

1008-731: The Western Cape , South Africa, to southern Morocco and southwestern Algeria and outside Africa through Arabia, Iran, and Western Asia to Turkmenistan and the Indian Peninsula . It is known to range from sea level to as much as 2,600 m (8,500 ft) in the Moroccan High Atlas and 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in Ethiopia 's Bale Mountains . The honey badger is mostly solitary, but has also been sighted in Africa to hunt in pairs during

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1056-484: The breeding season in May. It also uses old burrows of aardvark , warthog and termite mounds. It is a skilled digger, able to dig tunnels into hard ground in 10 minutes. These burrows usually have only one entry, are usually only 1–3 m (3 ft 3 in – 9 ft 10 in) long with a nesting chamber that is not lined with any bedding. The honey badger is famous for its strength, ferocity and toughness. It

1104-564: The Arionidae slugs include the Sciomyzidae . This article incorporates public domain text from the reference. Common name In chemistry , IUPAC defines a common name as one that, although it unambiguously defines a chemical, does not follow the current systematic naming convention, such as acetone , systematically 2-propanone , while a vernacular name describes one used in a lab, trade or industry that does not unambiguously describe

1152-621: The British occupation of Basra in 2007, rumours of "man-eating badgers" emerged from the local population, including allegations that these beasts were released by the British troops, something that the British categorically denied. A British army spokesperson said that the badgers were "native to the region but rare in Iraq" and "are usually only dangerous to humans if provoked". The honey badger has also been reported to dig up human corpses in India. In Kenya,

1200-652: The Hebrew Language publish from time to time short dictionaries of common name in Hebrew for species that occur in Israel or surrounding countries e.g. for Reptilia in 1938, Osteichthyes in 2012, and Odonata in 2015. Honey badger The honey badger ( Mellivora capensis ), also known as the ratel ( / ˈ r ɑː t əl / or / ˈ r eɪ t əl / ), is a mammal widely distributed in Africa , Southwest Asia , and

1248-510: The Kalahari, honey badgers were also observed to attack domestic sheep and goats , as well as kill and eat black mambas . A honey badger was suspected to have broken up the shells of tent tortoises in the Nama Karoo . In India, honey badgers are said to dig up buried human corpses. Despite popular belief, there is no evidence that honeyguides guide the honey badger. Little is known of

1296-683: The SSAR switched to an online version with a searchable database. Standardized names for the amphibians and reptiles of Mexico in Spanish and English were first published in 1994, with a revised and updated list published in 2008. A set of guidelines for the creation of English names for birds was published in The Auk in 1978. It gave rise to Birds of the World: Recommended English Names and its Spanish and French companions. The Academy of

1344-524: The Secretariat for the AFNC. SSA is an accredited Standards Australia (Australia's peak non-government standards development organisation) Standards Development The Entomological Society of America maintains a database of official common names of insects, and proposals for new entries must be submitted and reviewed by a formal committee before being added to the listing. Efforts to standardize English names for

1392-501: The amphibians and reptiles of North America (north of Mexico) began in the mid-1950s. The dynamic nature of taxonomy necessitates periodical updates and changes in the nomenclature of both scientific and common names. The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR) published an updated list in 1978, largely following the previous established examples, and subsequently published eight revised editions ending in 2017. More recently

1440-509: The author introduced into it so many new English names, that are to be found in no dictionary, and that do not preclude the necessity of learning with what Latin names they are synonymous. A tolerable idea may be given of the danger of too great a multiplicity of vulgar names, by imagining what geography would be, or, for instance, the Post-office administration, supposing every town had a totally different name in every language. Various bodies and

1488-493: The authors of many technical and semi-technical books do not simply adapt existing common names for various organisms; they try to coin (and put into common use) comprehensive, useful, authoritative, and standardised lists of new names. The purpose typically is: Other attempts to reconcile differences between widely separated regions, traditions, and languages, by arbitrarily imposing nomenclature, often reflect narrow perspectives and have unfortunate outcomes. For example, members of

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1536-540: The back. The caudal mucous pit is above the tip of the tail. The respiratory pore ( pneumostome ) is in front of the midpoint of the mantle . The body length is up to 250 mm. The mantle covers only a part of the body and lies in the anterior part. The jaw is odontognathic, which means it is transversally ribbed. Radular teeth include: central tricuspid, lateral bi- or tricuspid, marginal bicuspid, all having broad bases. Teeth are often accreted. The digestive system forms 2 loops. The heart, in relation to body axis,

1584-408: The choice of the name "thick-knees" is not easy to defend but is a clear illustration of the hazards of the facile coinage of terminology. For collective nouns for various subjects, see a list of collective nouns (e.g. a flock of sheep, pack of wolves). Some organizations have created official lists of common names, or guidelines for creating common names, hoping to standardize

1632-456: The flanks, belly and groin. The summer fur is shorter (being only 15 mm (0.59 in) long on the back) and even sparser, with the belly being half bare. The sides of the head and lower body are pure black. A large white band covers the upper body, from the top of the head to the base of the tail. Honey badgers of the cottoni subspecies are unique in being completely black. The honey badger ranges through most of sub-Saharan Africa , from

1680-517: The genus Burhinus occur in Australia, Southern Africa, Eurasia, and South America. A recent trend in field manuals and bird lists is to use the name " thick-knee " for members of the genus. This, in spite of the fact that the majority of the species occur in non-English-speaking regions and have various common names, not always English. For example, "Dikkop" is the centuries-old South African vernacular name for their two local species: Burhinus capensis

1728-422: The hind legs and remarkably long on the forelimbs. It is a partially plantigrade animal whose soles are thickly padded and naked up to the wrists . The tail is short and is covered in long hairs, save for below the base. The honey badger is the largest terrestrial mustelid in Africa. Adults measure 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in) in shoulder height and 55–77 cm (22–30 in) in body length, with

1776-716: The honey badger's breeding habits. Its gestation period is thought to last six months, usually resulting in two cubs, which are born blind. Its lifespan in the wild is unknown, though captive individuals have been known to live for approximately 24 years. The voice of the honey badger is a hoarse "khrya-ya-ya-ya" sound. When mating, males emit loud grunting sounds. Cubs vocalise through plaintive whines. When confronting dogs, honey badgers scream like bear cubs. Honey badgers often become serious poultry predators. Because of their strength and persistence, they are difficult to deter. They are known to rip thick planks from hen-houses or burrow underneath stone foundations. Surplus killing

1824-403: The honey badger's cheek teeth are often extensively worn. The canine teeth are exceptionally short for carnivores. The papillae of the tongue are sharp and pointed, which assists in processing tough foods. The winter fur is long, being 40–50 mm (1.6–2.0 in) long on the lower back, and consists of sparse, coarse, bristle-like hairs, with minimal underfur . Hairs are even sparser on

1872-706: The modern (now binding) International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants contains the following: Art. 68. Every friend of science ought to be opposed to the introduction into a modern language of names of plants that are not already there unless they are derived from a Latin botanical name that has undergone but a slight alteration. ... ought the fabrication of names termed vulgar names, totally different from Latin ones, to be proscribed. The public to whom they are addressed derives no advantage from them because they are novelties. Lindley's work, The Vegetable Kingdom, would have been better relished in England had not

1920-484: The same animal. For example, in Irish, there are many terms that are considered outdated but still well-known for their somewhat humorous and poetic descriptions of animals. w/ literal translations of the poetic terms Common names are used in the writings of both professionals and laymen . Lay people sometimes object to the use of scientific names over common names, but the use of scientific names can be defended, as it

1968-693: The same subfamily as the wolverines , which are a genus of large-sized and atypical Guloninae, the honey badger can be regarded as another, analogous, form of outsized weasel or polecat . The species first appeared during the middle Pliocene in Asia. A number of extinct relatives are known dating back at least 7 million years to the Late Miocene . These include Mellivora benfieldi from South Africa and Italy, Promellivora from Pakistan, and Howellictis from Chad. More distant relatives include Eomellivora , which evolved into several different species in both

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2016-402: The scientific name into English or some other vernacular. Such translation may be confusing in itself, or confusingly inaccurate, for example, gratiosus does not mean "gracile" and gracilis does not mean "graceful". The practice of coining common names has long been discouraged; de Candolle's Laws of Botanical Nomenclature , 1868, the non-binding recommendations that form the basis of

2064-555: The scientific name. Creating an "official" list of common names can also be an attempt to standardize the use of common names, which can sometimes vary a great deal between one part of a country and another, as well as between one country and another country, even where the same language is spoken in both places. A common name intrinsically plays a part in a classification of objects, typically an incomplete and informal classification, in which some names are degenerate examples in that they are unique and lack reference to any other name, as

2112-579: The scientific names. The Swedish common names were all binomials (e.g. plant no. 84 Råg-losta and plant no. 85 Ren-losta); the vernacular binomial system thus preceded his scientific binomial system. Linnaean authority William T. Stearn said: By the introduction of his binomial system of nomenclature, Linnaeus gave plants and animals an essentially Latin nomenclature like vernacular nomenclature in style but linked to published, and hence relatively stable and verifiable, scientific concepts and thus suitable for international use. The geographic range over which

2160-442: The tail adding another 12–30 cm (4.7–11.8 in). Females are smaller than males. In Africa, males weigh 9 to 16 kg (20 to 35 lb) while females weigh 5 to 10 kg (11 to 22 lb) on average. The mean weight of adult honey badgers from different areas has been reported at anywhere between 6.4 to 12 kg (14 to 26 lb), with a median of roughly 9 kg (20 lb), per various studies. This positions it as

2208-601: The third largest known badger, after the European badger and hog badger , and fourth largest extant terrestrial mustelid after additionally the wolverine . However, the average weight of three wild females from Iraq was reported as 18 kg (40 lb), about the typical weight of male wolverines or male European badgers in late autumn, indicating that they can attain much larger than typical sizes in favorable conditions. However, an adult female and two males in India were relatively small weighing 6.4 kg (14 lb) and

2256-800: The use of common names. For example, the Australian Fish Names List or AFNS was compiled through a process involving work by taxonomic and seafood industry experts, drafted using the CAAB (Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota) taxon management system of the CSIRO , and including input through public and industry consultations by the Australian Fish Names Committee (AFNC). The AFNS has been an official Australian Standard since July 2007 and has existed in draft form (The Australian Fish Names List) since 2001. Seafood Services Australia (SSA) serve as

2304-628: Was proposed as a tribe name by John Edward Gray in 1865. The honey badger is the only species of the genus Mellivora . Although in the 1860s it was assigned to the badger subfamily, the Melinae , it is now generally agreed that it bears few similarities to the Melinae. It is much more closely related to the marten subfamily, Guloninae , and furthermore is assigned its own subfamily, Mellivorinae. Differences between Mellivorinae and Guloninae include differences in their dentition formulae . Though not in

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