So how does one delete a common name on iNaturalist without replacing it with something else? There are quite a few bogus common names for leaf-mining insects on iNat, which I have not encountered anywhere else, and which have led to all kinds of absurdly wrong IDs. For example, someone gave Sumitrosis rosea the common name “leafminer beetle,” which is not at all helpful when there are over 200 species of leaf-mining beetles in North America alone. As a result there were all sorts of random pictures of leaf mines being identified as this species, most of which weren’t even made by beetles. I tried deleting the name but the system insisted that I replace it with something, so I typed in “one of many leaf-mining beetles,” which stuck for a while. I see that the species now has no common name, so clearly it is possible to simply delete a common name, but I haven’t figured out how to do it.
Only a curator or the person who added it (regardless of their being a curator or not) may do so. The ability of all users to edit common names was removed due to unfortunately high levels of edit wars going on…
If you dont fall into one of those 2 buckets, then you can only flag it for review. If you are a curator, then should not be getting prompted about replacing it, that is not required, unless you are somehow trying to edit scientific names that are set as active.
I am a curator, and was a curator when I had this problem.
I think we were typing at the same time. Most likely while a common name it was entered as a scientific name as the lexicon. If that is done, you need to edit it to set as inactive first, save it, then go into delete it. If entered under any language, you should not be getting a note saying a replacement is neeed, as common names are not mandatory data.
Thanks–I’ll try that next time I have this problem.
I disagree with the interpretation of the curator guideline: Please don’t add information to a name in addition to the name itself, e.g. “grumblefoots (this genus is monotypic, just ID to species!).”
I consider it quite proper to add geographical disambiguation to a name, which is very different from a comment about the name or species. For instance the common name “peacock flounder” is applied to a pair of similar fish, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. What we eventually did with this case was to leave that common name on both species, but to make the primary common names “Atlantic Peacock Flounder” and “Pacific Peacock Flounder”. These species have been well known for decades. In the case of recent splits, it is particularly valuable to do this. The guideline seems to be saying don’t name it “Peacock Flounder (the one with the eyes wide apart)”.
Along the same idea, you could leave the name “Common Flesh Fly” on Sarcophaga carnaria but make its primary common name something much more specific. Though here is where you risk running into the rule not to make up names. Is there a specific one that this species is also known by? I don’t know this group to know what would make sense, but something like “European Striped Flesh Fly”.
-Mark
I mentioned in my previous comment that for Taxon Splits - especially for a well-known species thought to be monotypic with a well recognized common name - that name modifications for the output are necessary and fine.
I would have handled the Peacock Flounder split the same way that you did. However, I think this is a different situation because the taxonomic interpretation of this fly species had not changed so modifying its name seems unnecessary.
Okay, here is an example of an absolutely made-up and useless common name–“aster leafminer” for Calycomyza humeralis: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/715392-Calycomyza-humeralis
When you say “edit it to set as inactive,” how/where do I do that?
I was able to delete this name as below:
Ah, okay! I had been trying by just deleting what is in the Name field and then clicking save. I’ll try this next time. Thanks!
“Aster Leafminer” actually does appear to be a valid common name specific to Calycomyza humeralis sourced from what ITIS labels as “Stoetzel, 1933, database (version 1)”… but ITIS provides no link to this source and thus no means of double checking.
The danish name is clearly wrong. S. canaria should be Almindelig Kødflue, meaning Common Meat Fly, and Kødflue should actually just be the name for the family/genus Sarcophagidae/Sarcophaga sp.
Then someone needs to contact the Danish Biodiversity Facility at DanBif as they list the species name as Kødflue.
Artsgruppe :Diptera (Tovinger)Videnskabeligt navn :Sarcophaga carnariaAutor :(Linnaeus, 1758)Dansk navn :Kødflue
Sorry does not paste well from the single page tech used all allearter.
Ok. I will get in touch with Thomas Pape who both works at the museum but also authered the book on on Sarcophagidae in the Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica series. He must know what to do.
Thomas Pape has been in contact with the adminisrtator, but the DanBif database is no longer being updated. It will soon be replaced by a new Taxonbase, and Lars Skipper, who are in charge of the project, will make sure that the danish name for Sarcophaga carnaria is removed.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.