Able to select inactive taxon for ID

I know it has been reported before, but just getting it formalized here. There is still some odd functionality somewhere in the site that allows users to select an inactive taxa for their identification,.

See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20729658 for an example.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20730741

Screenprint also added in case it disappears.

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Just for the development team, I followed up with the observer of the 2nd link, and asked if they had done something different to enter that inactive taxa.

They replied they just ‘typed it in’. Everywhere I tried to do just that, either when I hit enter the field blanked out or if I tried to save with that in there it blanked out the taxa box upon saving.

I dont know if there is another variant of ‘just typed it in’ I missed trying. The only obvious difference was the observer was on a Mac and I am on a Windows machine, so maybe some behaviour difference between how Chrome and Safari deal with lookahead typing ?

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It’s not coming up for me in Safari. Here’s what “Avicularia h” gets me:

“Avicularia hu” shows nothing.

The coywolf one was made from an iPhone, so maybe related to how it selects a taxon when the data connection is not perfect?

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I interpreted it to mean they just kept typing despite the lack of the entry in the dropdown, as the text had to get completed somehow.

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I used Avicularia huriana as a placeholder in both Safari and Chrome and iNat selected the inactive taxon both times:

Same thing happened with Canis latrans × lupus.

I’ll write up an issue.

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Obviously related to this, but not quite exactly the same.

see here: https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/340737

I added the ID of “Nata”
when it displayed it showed this


after 5 minutes, when I opened the observation again, the red “inactive taxon” icon just vanished, but it displayed for 5 minutes (and fortunately was still in my browser for a screen grab).

The real issue is that there is no inactive taxon. see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/search?is_active=any&q=nata&utf8=✓
So why did it display “inactive taxon”?

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This is not an isolated happening, it has been reported before. Somewhere in the system is another flag where it was reported twice in a single day. I will see if I can track that flag down.

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Same for zooplankton and phytoplankton, which have been long inactive.

https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?taxon_id=363348,363351&current=any
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26446398
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23842828

Another example from @cmcheatle: “desert tortoise” https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37619460

And another
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37658522

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37731907

@tiwane I know for sure of two additional ways people can select inactive taxa for IDs. One is when there is a taxon change and someone has opted out of having their content updated for them – which is presumably what happened with the most recent ID on this one:

The other is because inactive taxa show up in Suggestions.

EDIT:
Actually, I would argue the first scenario is a special case of the general situation where there is already an ID of an inactive taxon. So I think the fixes are:

  • remove the Agree button from IDs of inactive taxa (regardless of how the initial inactive ID showed up)
  • remove inactive taxa from Suggestions, or at least remove the ability to select them
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Another Inactive Taxon that just got added as an ID (“Mixed Collection”)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/39394557

Still a problem, both on the observation page (screenshot above), and also on the dashboard.

(Thanks again for fixing Suggestions/Compare though!)

Here’s one posted today if you’re collecting examples: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51944032

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Interesting, that observation was created with EcoExplore:
image

Probably something can be gleaned from that…

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I didn’t see an issue from Tony in github (though there is this one). But it seems placeholders can still create IDs for inactive taxa:

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I know there have been some revisions with the Leucauge genus. There’s a puzzling situation going on with a particular observation, though.

It’s https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16867026 and the original observer IDed it as Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) and it is showing up as an “inactive taxon”. I was pretty sure it was still an active taxon, so I tried entering it and that attempt worked. See below.

When I investigated further there are these species pages,
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/53467-Leucauge-venusta (listed as inactive)
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/778499-Leucauge-venusta (listed as active)

The spelling seems the same, so why is the first listed as inactive?

And I’m not sure if this should be moved to Bug Reports, and if so, I’m happy for a moderator to do that.

And, as an FYI, when/if you go to the observation, I have deleted my ID because I really don’t think it is Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge venusta), but I wanted to see if that species could be added.

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Ope, I think I solved my own question. I found this,

Heads up: this taxon concept is inactive. Leucauge venusta [53467] was split into Leucauge argyrobapta [776900] and Leucauge venusta [778499]

So, I’m assuming the original Leucauge venusta [53467] couldn’t be kept because of the separation and a whole new “species,” Leucauge venusta [778499], had to be created to accommodate this split.

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