Wow Even, perfect! There could for instance be links to your work in some future more advanced version. (With your permission of course.)
My vision is to have highlighted in an id tree the taxa that are
-generally recognizable from photos
-easy to remember for novices
-easy to type if possible (low keystrokes a win)
-“best” (considering above factors) place to pile the observations, where a less-novice identifier would normally encounter them in their workflow
So, further elaboration ahead after I look into concept mapping apps and such. Thanks all for the feedback!
I’ve been leaving them as Fungi and putting them in Earth’s Lichens project.
I hadn’t heard a preference from lichen ID-ers. It can become cumbersome if it’s not in that group and you don’t withdraw your ID, but if that’s what they want…
I rely on … lec … then @jurga_li IDs as far as possible from the photos.
I comb out lichens for her from the Unknowns. And now obs the ones I see and try to learn a little as I go. Especially the blindingly easy like red toadskin lichen!
In some cases I need to change the identification because a lot of people are picking up an iNaturalist species as a local suggestion when the species doesn’t exist there. I try to find a reasonable option but sometimes I don’t see one on the suggestion list…
Which is compounded by the fact that there (sadly) just aren’t so many people interested in Hymenoptera in the first place, particularly anything even remotely related to “murder hornets” eye roll. Except cute fuzzy bees of course…
Some families are destined to end up with large piles of unidentified observations, but that’s ok! It would be far worse if people just gave up adding observations and ID-ing instead because it seems overwhelming.
70%+ of my observations are still ‘needs ID’ but I’m not about to start photographing every Ibis I see just to get a better ratio :P
“Since all wasps are native to Asia, the name Asian giant hornet does not convey unique information about the biology or behavior of the species, according to the ESA.”
All wasps are native to Asia? How could that possibly be true?!
The actual organization’s press release says this:
Amid a rise in hate crimes and discrimination against people of Asian descent, usage of “Asian” in the name of a pest insect can unintentionally bolster anti-Asian sentiment. And, from a taxonomic perspective, all hornets—22 species of wasps in the genus Vespa—are native or common to Asia, meaning “Asian giant hornet” does not convey unique information about the biology or behavior of the species Vespa mandarinia.
Thank you, that clears up @arboretum_amy’s point, that the statement refers only to Vespa. I often wonder why journalists find it so hard to report what scientists/politicians/religious leaders/etc actually say.
I understand the reason for changing the name in terms of avoidable stigma. But in my view even the argument in the actual press release fails to bolster the case any further so why say it? The stigma reason is enough. Common names don’t have to convey unique infomation about biology and behaviour. Most don’t - including ‘Northern Giant Hornet’!
That’s ridiculous logic. Better not provide location info for any family/species ever because who knows when people of that region might experience racism/disagreement.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to use other naming conventions.
How helpful is it really to have a location in the name? Unless it is a very localized endemic population, in which case a city or a county would be fine. But a whole continent is useless.
Anyway, anyone who knows or cares enough about an organism to work with it will know where it’s from without relying on the common name, which is often misleading anyway (see the other recent thread about misleading common names). IMO even without the prejudice aspects, it’s better to have an actually informative name.
I don’t see how this is not informative way, Vespa are not restricted to Asia, different species have different ranges, having one named after the region makes sense, if people are so eager to hate someone because wasps have Asia in their name, I think those people are lost already.