I know iNat has been very helpful by creating some species groups to include sister taxa that are difficult or impossible to identify based on the typical evidence provided in iNaturalist records. Because they are sister taxa, it is easy to group them in one clade/node. But I’ve run up against a s…

[image] sandboa: Is there a way we can give an “either/or” ID for these sorts of non-sister taxa? No, there isn’t a way to do this in the current identification system. Most people use comments, some use specific observation fields.

If I recall correctly, these two species overlap broadly in geographic range so location might not be helpful in many cases in making a call on which species it’s most likely to be. Adding comments to indicate that it’s one of two species and relegating a record to Natricinae might be only option ……

Does iNat support tribes in classification? If the two genera are sister genera within natricinae that might be a solution, someone would just have to name it. Of course if the two species still wouldn’t form a monophyletic tribe and other species are genetically between them then that wouldn’t wor…

I think Tribe Thamnophiini includes these two genera, and a bunch of others, and would have to be created in the iNat taxonomic framework. Not sure it would really narrow it down by much.

Assuming the below paper is still the accepted phylogeny, it looks like Virginia and Haldea aren’t next to each other on the tree anyway, there’s several other species more closely related to V. valeriae than H. striatula. So never mind the tribe idea. But I guess Thamnophiini would at least narrow …

In the link you provided, the two species are sisters or at least congeners. The problem I’m dealing with is two species that are not each other’s closest relatives and don’t form a monophyletic group. The only solution would be an ID category which doesn’t fit on any phylogeny as an entity. I’m…

Identification for non-sister cryptic species

General

upupa-epops February 4, 2020, 3:12am 7

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Identification for non-sister cryptic species

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