Funny Name of Microorganisms: Don’t try to find answer from these names

Naming of microorganisms is a very challenging name. Some of the name of microorganisms are derived  in honour of those persons who have first discovered this organism, in some cases the name of organism is dervied from the place of discovery, and in other cases the name reflects some of the salient feature of organisms such as Staphylococci (Grape like cluster: Morphology, Mycobacteria: Containing Mycolic acid: Salient feature).

But today I am talking about those popular names of microorganisms, inferences taken based only on those names results funny answer! I have found students getting confused and writing unrelated properties of these organism. After seeing the name, they just guess the properties, which is not correct. Here are the some:

1.       Chicken Pox: The question asked was write properties of Chicken Pox. I got the answer: It is a pox virus and it infects chicken.
But: Chicken pox does not infect chicken, nor is it caused by a pox virus. A herpes virus is its cause.

2.       Histoplasma Capsulatum: When asked about Histoplasma in a viva section. A student told: It’s a protozoa and it is capsulated.
But:  As its first name suggest, it is not a protozoa. It’s a fungus. As its second name suggest, it is not a capsulated organism, it does not bear any capsule.