While IDing, I sometimes encounter observers IDing animals as a certain species because of an organism of that species they’ve seen nearby. It usually happens with taxa in which different life stages or sexes differ in how difficult they are to identify.
My question is how you deal with this type of situation?
I find it completely unreliable to make an ID solely “by association” (unless both individuals were observed mating, earlier or something similar), but what do you think?
My go to is to add a broader non-disagreeing ID, but I wonder if it is better to add a disagreeing ID.
I can’t say anything useful about your question (IDs by association), but the first thing that came up in my mind (and I think other herpers can relate) is that horny male anurans (frogs and toads) will attempt to mate with all kinds of things: dead members of their species, rubber boots, etc. So, at least in those taxa, mating is no guarantee of association!
There’s probably a project for unusual mating associations, but I couldn’t find it . . .
I would say it depends a lot on the type of organism and the exact situation described.
Someone telling me this must be the same type of wolf spider as the other that was IDed because it was on the same location… well, difficult with organisms that coexist and are rather mobile..
Someone telling me they observed exclusively adults of a certain bug on a host plant so this larvae is probably the same species… yeah, why not, I buy it.
I think your suggested course of action - adding a non-disagreeing coarser ID and maybe some.comment - seems reasonable.
I agree that I would be skeptical of this and not ID based on “association” even in the context of mating in some cases, as there is definitely cross-species mating in some contexts. An exception might be very specific host/parasite or host/pollinator interactions where there is a known 1:1 correspondence. Though even then, who is to say that someone might not observe the first known case of previously undescribed species interaction? I think its justified to add a disagreeing ID in many cases (though I’d explain my reasoning).
There is one for insects: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/interspecies-insect-mating
And I have one I use for mixed-species bee interactions (many of which are mating, though it is not specifically dedicated to this)
I don’t know if there are any for animals in general.
whether associations evidence absence/possible distribution extensions from nearby species/whether species described in that area but not observed is real or possible synonym of others seen/…