Taxonomy issues PLEASE

@dejayM
Sorry, Derek. By no means blaming iSpot :slight_smile:
I keep a tight rein on my personal lists and was some months behind the times. But the paper on the split was published 2-3 years ago now, and I’d hope a learned institution would catch up :smiley:
By the way, @Bluebirdresearch, most animals actually have Greek-origin names (unlike plants), so “scientific name” always preferable in my books to “Latin name” :smiley:
And for those of us who watch wildlife more internationally than others, Barn Swallow makes far more sense the Swallow :smiley:
On all the above: no offence intended or implied. Please take the smileys at face value (yes, I said “face” value :smiley: )

The press coverage of the renaming of the UK’s Grass Snake shows how little “original” journalism there is - one initial misrepresentation was echoed across other sites, including some quite reputable ones.
This may be why the “new name” has not been widely adopted on wildlife-focussed web sites, or it may simply reflect the dire straits the parent organisations find themselves in.

Names: for me, the reason to use the scientific name is because that name has a published description associated with it. As here, when Linnaus, with some foresight, left us the pdf for Fucus vesiculosus*.
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https://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=87&sk=0&from=results
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That’s not routinely done for common names.
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  • it’s in latin but google translate copes remarkably well.

I love those old taxonomic documents and I have spent hours and hours researching name origins.
As for the Google Translation
“…of plants, showing forth the soles of the feet are properly adjudicated, to the kinds of victories gained over, with the specific differences, the names of the triuialibus, synonymous names chosen persons, the places of origin, given in accordance with the system of sexual partium…”

WRONG GROUP (Taxonomy?)
Are you up for helping? I am taking the trouble to look these out.
YOU can help - anyone can help. Read some of the comments before you begin


Birds as plants - need Banner shifts, please
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/6258/ :white_check_mark: Thanks
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/11731/

PLEASE HELP in the Wrong Group project

I hope I’m in the right place to report this. I’ve just identified a problem with ‘earwig’ IDs - not sure exactly where the problem lies, but in agreeing to a recent obs (https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/813305/earwig-found-under-some-rocks) I noticed that it didn’t link to any other earwig obs, despite looking like a valid panel. When I looked at some of the others, I noticed that this one has a different taxonomy thread, including Forficuloidea which isn’t in other visible earwig obs. There are a lot of dropdown options when you type ‘earwig’ into iSpot and I suspect some of them are faulty in terms of taxonomy. Perhaps a lot of lost earwigs obs out there as a result!

iSpot uses 3 different taxonomic databases, depending on what part of the world it thinks is relevant, which is the usual cause of conflicting taxonomic hierarchies. The lack of an other identifications carousel may be a result of no earwigs of this species having been recorded using that particular database.

Thanks so much - sorry, I meant to reply ages ago and forgot. Derek got to the bottom of this and you are absolutely right, it’s because of the different databases, which I didn’t know about. This particular person, while living in Northern Ireland, had managed to create an observation in the global community (Derek thought it was a very unusual glitch, hard to replicate!) which is why no other obs of earwigs showed up.

5 people had used the Designation (ID) Coprinae. I found them by accident.
This is a typical one - the sort of mistake I make!


See my comment about taxonomy - iSpot thinks it’s an Invert (for no apparent reason).
Just try searching for occurrences of Coprinae.
It is time that the Search facility was sorted. There are five UK Observations and it is in the Drop-down and the Species Taxonomy Browser - but what as?
SANBI has it right!

Morus refers to a Bird and Plant: see

In response to Derek’s comment: The first Morus entry in the drop down dictionary is the bird.

try to record WHICH in the drop-down is which. First or second.
I think our friendly coder @Chris_Valentine could add (Bird) or (Plant) in brackets
D

A Global one (Anura)
perhaps the best way of dealing with it BUT how do other people get to know?

Needs an agreement

Similarly (Sida)

Liriope is a plant and an invert. This observation is the plant but the identification is for an invertebrate.

Arion ater or Arion Ater agg?
Viewing this excellent post: https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/830505/mating-slugs
I noticed that the "Other observations panel was (a) quite limited and (b) not viewable -


Reloading a previous post of mine, https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/825737/slugs-in-the-shade I can see more thumbnails (and they emphasized textareemphasized text visible, so it doesn’t seem to be a “quantity” issue).
The difference appears to be that I used “Arion ater agg.” It seems that this will collect the more specific “Arion (Arion) ater” that BoobyG used, but the converse isn’t true.
Any suggestions on the preferred etiquette? The use of the “agg” version seems to link to more posts, and is therefore, I suppose, preferable.

I also learn that you can’t format the text AFTER typing it, or you get -
emphasized textareemphasized text

I could not replicate all the issues you mention but I have attempted an explanation
We are allowed to Format text only in Observation Descriptions or Project Text - nowhere else.

But there are obviously two entries in the Dictionary for the Great Black Slug - Arion (Arion) ater (his) and Arion ater agg (yours)

Leading to more (or less) posts is due there actually being more of one than the other (of course)
There have been similar cases in the recent past where I have added the alternative ID to bring them all together. Without any comment from the community I may add (I cannot find an example)
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The problem, not the solution, is seen in the Browser
https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/species-dictionary/NHMSYS0020528104/arion
Two separate IDs
Arion (Arion) agg.(36 obs) and Arion (Arion) ater (168 obs)
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The Few could solve this issue by adding IDs to the 168 and moving the banner.

It would be a legitimate task (according to me!) but MAY be pointless if the dictionary is to be updated soon.
Though one has to wonder how it will behave if there are two IDs for the same Organism.
My view is reduce them all to ONE ID, preferable the one in the new Dictionary
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The new Dictionary, should it ever be installed, has one entry - Arion (Arion) agg.
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/data/uk-species/hierarchy?orgKey=NBNORG0000052902

An explanation of Arion ater versus aggregate.

https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/black-slug

Thanks for the responses.
I understand the logic, but it is dreadfully confusing for inexperienced users: and I begin to dread the arrival of the Brave New Dictionary.
But I do not understand why there is a formatting bar above this text box
image
If we “are allowed to Format text only in Observation Descriptions or Project Text - nowhere else.”