Here are some plants, animals, and natural phenomena that are very similar in name and appearance and can be easily confused.

＜prologue＞

I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.

So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.

It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.

If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.

I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.

 

my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています

my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X

 

(Reference) Original article in Japanese

・名前や形などがよく似ていて紛らわしい動植物・自然現象をご紹介します

 

<Added 2023/2/3> There was a report (HuffPost Japan) that the world is shocked by the “Doppelganger Murder Case.”

This is a case in Germany where a woman who looked exactly like the victim on social media was murdered. “Doppelganger” refers to “autosensory hallucination,” which is explained below.

The arrested woman is suspected of murdering a woman who looked exactly like her, whom she found on social media, in order to fake her own death.

In German, a “doppelganger” is used to describe a “double that looks exactly like oneself” (autosensory hallucination). Local media outlets are reporting this as the “Doppelganger Murder Case.”

 

I’ve heard the saying, “There are three people in the world who look just like you.” I’ve never met any myself, but when I was a salaryman, a client told me, “I know someone who looks a lot like you. They’re the spitting image.” I don’t know if they were a distant relative, or just a complete stranger with a striking resemblance.

Seeing oneself in a “self-image hallucination” is a type of hallucination called a “doppelgänger” (*).

(*) A “doppelgänger” is a doppelganger, a double that looks exactly like oneself. It’s a kind of second self, a spirit or ghost. It can also refer to the phenomenon of the same person appearing simultaneously in different locations (sometimes multiple locations) (including when witnessed by a third party). In paranormal dictionaries, it’s treated as a type of paranormal phenomenon.

The German word “Doppel” (cognate with the English “double”) means “double,” “identical copy,” or “doppelgänger.” A literal translation of the German word “Doppelgänger” would be “double walker” or “double body.”

It is sometimes referred to simply as “double” in English, and can also be written in kanji as “復体” (fukutai).

The “doppelgänger phenomenon” has long been discussed in myths, legends, and superstitions, where it was believed to be the separation and materialization of the soul from the body. Furthermore, the appearance of this double was believed to be an omen of the person’s death.

For writers of “Gothic novels” (mystical and fantastical novels, considered the origin of today’s science fiction and horror novels), which were popular from the late 18th to the 20th century, the “doppelgänger,” as an omen of death or misfortune, was a fascinating subject, and was sometimes depicted as a projection of one’s own guilt.

It is said that there are records of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, Catherine the Great of Imperial Russia, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa all claiming to have seen their own doppelgangers. These kinds of stories are a little frightening, aren’t they?

By the way, there are several things—animals, plants, natural phenomena, and even kanji characters—that have very similar and confusing names.

1. Animals

(1) “Shirauo” (whitebait) and “Shirouo” (plain fish)

（「白魚（しらうお）」と「素魚（しろうお）」）

“Shirauo” (whitebait) belongs to the Salangidae family of the Clupeiformes order, while “shirouo” (plain fish) belongs to the Gobiidae family of the Perciformes order. However, they are often confused due to their similar names and appearances.

The key difference is that shirauo have an adipose fin between their dorsal fins, while shirouo do not.

Shirauo was apparently a favorite of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and was a familiar fish to the people of Edo (Tokyo), frequently appearing in novels by Shotaro Ikenami.

In spring, they enter rivers to spawn, and in the past, they could be seen in the Sumida River, becoming a symbol of spring in Edo.

The whitebait (shirouo) is one of the representative fish that heralds spring, and it has several other names, including isagi, shirauo, dorome, isada, shiraya, and hiuo.

The most common way to eat whitebait is “odorigui,” where the live whitebait is eaten raw with a vinegar-based sauce or egg yolk soy sauce.

(2) Mayflies, grass mayflies, and thin-winged mayflies

（｢蜉蝣（かげろう）｣と｢草蜉蜻蛉（くさかげろう）｣と｢薄羽蜻蛉（うすばかげろう）｣）

Mayflies are a general term for insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. As their name suggests, they are delicate, fragile insects with translucent, thin wings.

They have been called “harvest insects” because they appear in large numbers in years of abundant harvests, and “white dew insects” because they appear around the time of the White Dew solar term.

Adult mayflies have vestigial mouths and are unable to obtain food, resulting in a very short lifespan, with most dying within a few hours of hatching.

Mayflies, often said to “be born in the morning and die in the evening,” derive their name from the shimmering heat haze that rises in the sun, a classic example of something fleeting and ephemeral.

Lacewings can also be written as “草蜉蝣”. They are a general term for insects belonging to the family Chrysopidae in the order Neuroptera. Lacewings hatch from beautiful and mysterious eggs called “udonge,” and I only saw an udonge hanging from the ceiling once when I was a child.

Adult lacewings have a yellowish-green body and translucent, teardrop-shaped wings.

The Japanese name for lacewing, “Usukakagerou,” can also be written as “薄羽蜉蝣.” It’s a general term for insects belonging to the family Myrmecoptera (lacewings) within the order Neuroptera. While the insect-loving author, Kita Morio, jokingly referred to them as “Usukakagerou” (meaning “lowly ugly lacewing”), the correct kanji names are “薄羽蜉蝣” or “薄羽蜻蛉.”

Adult lacewings closely resemble dragonflies, possessing a slender body, a round head, and long, narrow wings.

The larvae of lacewings are the natural enemy of ants, known as “antlions.”

Incidentally, there is an insect that closely resembles the lacewing called the “crane fly（「大蚊（ががんぼ）」）.” Crane flies belong to the family Tipulidae in the order Diptera.

2. Plants

(1) “Echalot” and “Shallot”

“Echalotte” originally referred to “root rakkyo,” that is, “rakkyo harvested while still young” (young rakkyo).

Because “root rakkyo” didn’t sell very well, they looked for a more fashionable name, and since it resembled “shallot” in shape, they started calling it “echalotte.”

On the other hand, “shallot” refers to “small onions.” It’s a type of aromatic vegetable and a variety of onion. Its taste is somewhere between garlic and onion, with a slightly spicy and refreshing flavor.

However, because “echalotte” was sometimes sold under the name “shallot,” causing confusion, the “small onion” came to be called “Belgian shallot” to clearly distinguish between the two.

(2) “Crow’s Pea” and “Sparrow’s Pea”

（｢カラスノエンドウ(烏野豌豆)｣と｢スズメノエンドウ(雀野豌豆)｣）

“Crow’s vetch” and “Sparrow’s vetch” are types of wild peas, and although they have “pea” in their name, they belong to the Vicia genus. Another type of wild pea is “Kasumagusa.”

Incidentally, “Kasumagusa” is a wild plant that is very similar to “Crow’s vetch” and “Sparrow’s vetch.” It was named this way because it is “between” crows and sparrows.

(3) “Erigeron annuus,” “Primula japonica,” and “Aster tataricus”

（「ヒメジョオン」と「ハルジオン」と「シオン」）

I previously wrote a detailed article about “Erigeron annuus and Erigeron philadelphicus” and “Aster tataricus,” so please refer to that article.

3. Natural Phenomena

(1) “Hail” and “Sleet”

（「雹（ひょう）」と「霰（あられ）」）

Both “hail” and “sleet” are “ice particles that fall from the sky,” but “hail” refers to particles with a diameter of 5 mm or more, while “sleet” refers to particles with a diameter of less than 5 mm.

Incidentally, the “world’s largest hailstone” is said to be the one that fell in 1917 in what is now Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, with a diameter of 29.6 cm.

Furthermore, “sleet” is a “weather phenomenon in which rain and snow fall together.”

(2) “Fog” and “Mist”

（「霧（きり）」と「靄（もや）」
）

Both “fog” and “mist” refer to “a state in which water vapor in the air has turned into fine water droplets,” but in meteorological terminology, “fog” refers to “visibility of less than 1 km,” and “mist” refers to “visibility of 1 km or more but less than 10 km.”

Essentially, “clouds” are the same as “fog.