Name a Species 2011 – the results
We have received a fantastic response to this year’s competition, with more than 5,000 entries. As well as a high level of responses from the Guardian website, a huge number of entries were made by visitors to the Bristol Festival of Nature.
Our judges sat down on 7 July to pour over the suggestions and make their decisions. Pete Brotherton, Head of Biodiversity at Natural England, who chaired the panel said: “This competition set out to inspire the nation, drawing attention to some less well-known species that have, until now, been without a common name. The public have come up trumps with some vivid and imaginative suggestions to rescue these forgotten species from obscurity.”
At the end of the day, the overall best suggestion was agreed to be Hotlips, the name proposed for the disc-shaped fungus, Octospora humosa, that is a vivid orange-red and often resembles puckered lips.
All winners and runners up for each species will be sent commemorative certificates during the coming week.
Note: This year, a number of the winning suggestions were submitted by several entrants, posing the judges with a dilemma. In order to select a single winner for each species we selected the first entrant from the Guardian blog who suggested the name, or drew lots from those entries submitted by hand. The judges extend their commiserations to entrants who came so close to a winning or runners up suggestion.
