I’ve been wondering if there is any existing way on iNaturalist to tag or group observations that appear to represent undescribed species, so that other users who encounter similar organisms can find them more easily in the future?
For example, there are a few observations of a distinct purple Cyanea jellyfish from New Zealand (e.g. observation 1, observation 2).
It’s clearly related to the Cyanea capillata complex, but the coloration and morphology don’t match any described species known from the area — suggesting it may represent an undescribed taxon or a yet-unconfirmed form.
Right now, the only options seem to be:
leave it at genus level (Cyanea sp.)
add a note in the observation description
So, my question is: Is there any recommended way to “tag” such provisional taxa (e.g. through observation fields, projects) that would make them discoverable and consistently groupable …without violating taxonomic standards or site rules?
Would love to hear how others handle this, especially those working with highly variable or poorly resolved marine groups like jellyfish.
I second this - It would be really useful for working out a rough idea of population density of undescribed but very easily identifable species (eg Hairy Octopus)
I’ll just chime in to mention how this has been handled for undescribed North American plant galls uploaded to iNaturalist, as I think it’s a pretty good system (albeit dependent on an external database).
Many plant galls remain undescribed, sometimes despite being relatively common and morphologically distinct from other species. Several gall researchers started a database for American and Canadian galls called gallformers.com a few years ago, which includes entries for undescribed species and assigns them a code (for example, Polystephaq-nigra-cone-gall). The database admins created an observation field on iNat called “Gallformers Code” so that observations can be marked with their code, allowing all observations of the undescribed species to be easily searched and mapped despite having no iNat taxon.
I’m glad to know about this project. I wasn’t even aware of it previously. It will be useful for some of the moths and other insects I photographed recently in the Colombian Andes.
I know, but I didn’t want to start a new thread just to figure out what was with it, I’m still relatively new and didn’t know why I couldn’t find any specific species for it.
Yes, once you add an observation field or see an observation field that has been added by someone else, you can click on it and a dropdown box will appear. One of the options is “observations with this field and value,” which will pull up a map or grid view of observations with that observation field.
Is there any recommended way to “tag” such provisional taxa (e.g. through observation fields, projects) that would make them discoverable and consistently groupable …without violating taxonomic standards or site rules?
:)