How should organisms be identified if what inaturalist considers a species is in the literature considered a complex of several, including undescribed, species? It has come up in an observation of enchenopa binotata . The opinions appear to be that since it is a species complex, it should receive g…

So I was just pointed at: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#complexes , which is sort of the answer for the question I meant to have asked. (thanks @bouteloua ) That leaves cases outside the guidelines, but sometimes it may be appropriate to use genus or species even if it’s ambiguous.

You will probably find that complexes are usually where there are two or more taxa and specimens will sit somewhere between them. It just means you need to pick which species description it is most like. You have to remember that a species description is based on a single specimen, and often charact…

If I’m reading it correctly the iNat taxonomy now seems to include the taxon rank of ‘complex’ which I hadn’t noticed before. So in your example there are two entries for Pantherophis alleghaniensis. One is Pantherophis alleghaniensis Complex, which includes, as child taxa, all the species in the c…

[image] kiwifergus: It just means you need to pick which species description it is most like. I don’t think we should be identifying observations to species if there’s no safe way to separate them. In cases where there is cryptic species or species that are impossible to separate without diss…

Holding bin fields are fine as a temporary placeholder but i don’t think we should be using them in the long term. They don’t work with any of the other filters or lists or the range maps. I’d rather just have the complexes when we can. In the past we weren’t able to do so, so i’m glad that was chan…

[image] upupa-epops: What’s the difference between a subgenus and a species complex and a tricky pair of species? A subgenus contains species that are thought to be descended from a common ancestor. A tricky pair of species can be difficult to distinguish, but aren’t necessarily closely relat…

Seeing that complexes are part of the inaturalist taxonomy, and that this is a relatively recent addition, perhaps the best course of action would be to flag the taxon in question for curation. I’m going to try with enchenopa binotata.

Species groups and species complexes are work-around solutions for populations of closely related organisms which have not yet been fully addressed systematically and taxonomically. If an iNat record can be reliably assigned to such a group/complex – not at species level but better than just slappin…

I’d like a species complex or species group option for Bombus vosnesenskii and its look-alikes. There’s a least one named species and it’s suspected that there are others that look the same, in the kind of view we get from photos. Some people are using the subgenus Pyrobombus to deal with this, bu…

[image] sedgequeen: How do we propose or produce a species group like this? Flag for Curation the appropriate parent or member species, and make the request. Add a comment to the flag with details, including the proposed member species. Also I suggest reading the Curator Guide section on co…

How are species complexes treated?

General

upupa-epops October 13, 2019, 1:31am 9

I’m guessing a species group is more expansive than a species complex but less than a subgenus. Would they be allowed as taxa on iNaturalist? For example this group on BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1004971

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How are species complexes treated?

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