Genus to subgenus

Curators
1

Hi folks,

I am a fairly new curator and have a question about a taxonomic change I would like to make.
I am trying to change a taxon currently at genus level to subgenus. This seems as simple as going to “Edit Taxon” and changing rank to “subgenus” and the parent ID to the proper parent ID.

In theory, this should make the genus name of each species in that subgenus revert to the parent taxon name, correct? Are there any repercussions I should expect?

I just wanted to consult the experts before committing this change.

Thanks in advance for any help. I can provide any additional or specific information needed, if it helps.

2

in my experience, the names have not reverted and i have to go back and do individual taxon swaps for each species in the subgenus. it’s possible i’ve done this incorrectly and there’s a simpler way (i’m also somewhat new as a curator), but this is how i’ve done it the few times i’ve come across this. lots of flags i’ve seen are also a result of inconsistent species names within a genus due to a prior change to subgenus. I always make sure to be ready to make the time for the individual swaps when I move a genus to subgenus or vice versa.

3

What exactly are you expecting should happen?

If you are assuming the displayed name will change to a format of Genus (Subgenus) epithet, the site does not support this format.

Are you expecting the actual genus name to change.

What you are trying, at least as I understand it will have no impact on any names. Via taxon changes, names are only impacted by running an actual taxa change, simply editing the level of something will have no impact on any name.

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4

Thanks for the responses!

Basically, I am trying to change a genus (Ochlerotatus) to a subgenus (of genus Aedes) and I am assuming that if I edit the taxon level from genus to subgenus, the binomial name will change on iNaturalist from, for example, Ochlerotatus triseriatus to Aedes triseriatus (and presumably the common name “Eastern Treehole Mosquito” should stay the same).

One potential conflict I just now realized is that duplicate taxon pages exist. For example, there is a page for Aedes trivittatus and one for Ochlerotatus trivittatus, which are the same species.

So from what I’m gathering, the best course of action would be to first merge duplicate taxon pages, and then commit a taxon change for Ochlerotatus (i.e. merge Aedes into Ochlerotatus)? Or will simply changing the taxon level from genus to subgenus work after merging duplicate taxa?

5

For this kind of change I would always perform taxon swaps, not reassign the taxon rank.

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6

Thanks. I went the taxon swap route the following way:

  1. Taxon swapped duplicate Aedes species into the Ochlerotatus congener
  2. Taxon swapped Genus Ochlerotatus into Subgenus Ochlerotatus (new taxon) of Genus Aedes

However, I’ve noticed a couple things:

  1. The genus names are still Ochlerotatus. I take it I have to create a new taxon for each individual species with Aedes as the genus and swap taxon.

  2. The Aedes observations I swapped into Ochlerotatus are now in a limbo of sorts, “Research Grade” under an “inactive taxon.” I’d like them to be in the active taxon created from the taxon swap. Does iNaturalist just take a while to update these or will I have to manually change these somehow?
    For example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51115332

7

I haven’t looked into the taxonomy of these, but yes and yes to your two questions. The observation has the new IDs from the taxon swap now.

8

@ospr3y - you may wish to look at and respond to this
https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/497423

9

Thank you all for your help and patience!

I did taxon swaps on each species individually. On every swap, I added sources and links to the flag where we discussed this change. Once everything is updated, everything should be up-to-date with current mosquito taxonomy!

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