The valid genus name Ammophila yields an error when it is part of a taxa list to be uploaded via a csv file. And the csv file is not uploaded into iNaturalist.
Platform: Website
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Browser, if a website issue: Brave
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Description of problem:
Step 1: Include “Ammophila” in the taxon list of a csv file
Step 2: Upload the corresponding csv file.
Yields: “The species listed below were not found in the iNaturalist database.
Single taxon not found: Ammophila”
I wonder if it might be because there are multiple results that are exact matches? Ammophila is both a wasp genus and a grass (synonym for Calamagrostis)
Thanks for your input, Ben !
That is indeed very likely. Ammophila is apparently also a valid genus of grasses.
However, when I Search for “Ammophila” on iNat it only prompts the wasp genus …
Whereas, if iNat would prompt more than one match, one would be alerted of the unfortunate homonymy.
Do you perhaps know if iNat never prompts homonyms ?
Thanks for your feedback, Thomas !
I think you and Ben are correct that the (ex-)homonymy is likely causing the problem.
I’m glad that iNat synonymizes the plant genus Ammophila (with 3 species) with Calamagrostis, as some sources, like Wikipedia, still list Ammophila as a valid grass genus.
This synonymization should resolve the issue within iNat, but it looks like iNat is still “confused” and doesn’t “find” Ammophila due to Ammophila somehow still being perceived as a homonym and hence unable to process the csv data …
And yes, one needs to remove Ammophila from .csv files in order to proceed with the upload.
The type species of the wasp is A. sabulosa, while what appears to be the type species of the grass is A. arenaria. Both names mean “sandy sand-lover” (fr:sable and es:arena are from the roots).
Ammophila used to be the accepted name for the beach grasses that have recently been moved to Calamagrostis. Were you looking for the grasses or the wasps? If the grasses, perhaps iNaturalist hasn’t done a complete job yet of helping you find this synonym.
I have the wasp in my dataset.
It looks like iNat is still retaining Ammophila as a (valid?) grass genus as well and hence unable to process any CSV file containing Ammophila.
Thanks for following up, Thomas !
Using a taxon ID will likely work, but I’m uploading a batch of names.
Hence, yes, by hand one could substitute taxon IDs for those taxa that give errors, providing one is aware of why the error occurs, as iNat does not currently specify this..
It would be great if homonymy problems like this could be resolved within iNat to allow batch data to run smoothly.
In the case of Ammophila, the plant can be removed from the homonymy as it has been synonymized.
Thanks for your feedback, Cassi.
I agree that synonyms should remain on iNat such that users can find valid names.
What I meant is that homonyms that are no longer valid can be removed from iNat such that the batch processing doen’t fail because of them.
Or even better, improve the batch processing system such that it doesn’t stumble over homonyms.
Thanks for your reply, Diana.
I’m not sure how popups would work in iNat batch processing, but yes, an informational warning would be better than a stalling batch process.
In the case of Ammophila, the wasp is the current valid name and the plant name has been synonymized.