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.
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 âtyped it inâ. 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 âjust typed it inâ 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 ?
Itâs not coming up for me in Safari. Hereâs what âAvicularia hâ gets me:
âAvicularia huâ 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?
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.
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 Ă lupus.
Iâll write up an issue.
Obviously related to this, but not quite exactly the same.
see here: https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/340737
I added the ID of âNataâ
when it displayed it showed this
The real issue is that there is no inactive taxon. see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/search?is_active=any&q=nata&utf8=â
So why did it display âinactive taxonâ?
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.
Same for zooplankton and phytoplankton, which have been long inactive.
https://www.inaturalist.org/identifications?taxon_id=363348,363351¤t=any
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26446398
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23842828
Another example from @cmcheatle: âdesert tortoiseâ https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37619460
@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 â 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:
Another Inactive Taxon that just got added as an ID (âMixed Collectionâ)
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!)
Hereâs one posted today if youâre collecting examples: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51944032
Interesting, that observation was created with EcoExplore:
Probably something can be gleaned from thatâŚ
I didnât see an issue from Tony in github (though there is this one). But it seems placeholders can still create IDs for inactive taxa:
I know there have been some revisions with the Leucauge genus. Thereâs a puzzling situation going on with a particular observation, though.
Itâs https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16867026 and the original observer IDed it as Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge venusta) and it is showing up as an âinactive taxonâ. 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 Iâm not sure if this should be moved to Bug Reports, and if so, Iâm 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 donât think it is Orchard Orbweaver (Leucauge venusta), but I wanted to see if that species could be added.
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, Iâm assuming the original Leucauge venusta [53467] couldnât be kept because of the separation and a whole new âspecies,â Leucauge venusta [778499], had to be created to accommodate this split.
