So I identify a bunch of Pacific Island land snails, and there is one case which is especially interesting, the species Auriculella diaphana. This species is now restricted to only one site in Oahu and I ended up identifying any Auriculella species observed in this site as A. diaphana. Other people…

It’s also important to note that this group in general has extensive polyphyly, for example see this phylogenetic tree: [image] Notice how Achatinella fulgens is at the top while all the other Achatinella are at the bottom, and also how “Partulina” is just an aggregate of species from a lot of di…

Likewise, I’ll contribute another common example in the northeast USA: the red spruce and Norway spruce. Red spruce is a native species; however, it is essentially absent from coastal areas south of the town of Wells, Maine. From Ogunquit down to about New Jersey, there were dozens (to hundreds) of…

[image] t_0x16c: “Partulina” is just an aggregate of species from a lot of different clades whose only common property is shell shape. I wouldn’t say a lot of different clades. From perdix to semicarinata, they all trace back to be a sister clade to Achatinella dicipiens and A. lila. Unless y…

[image] paul_dennehy: Wikipedia took its range data from BugGuide when it was wrong and hasn’t been updated Can you update it yourself?

I guess that’s true but it still has members from two different clades, and is therefore polyphyletic. Achatinella is also polyphyletic as is visible in the image. Also note that Perdicella helena slots into Partulina here. IIRC Perdicella fully slots into Partulina and should be considered part of …

Technically, you do have one clade, with other clades nested inside it. You could treat the whole Partulina-Achatinella group (including Perdicella) as a single complex. Given its variations that might or might not be useful, but it would be logical.

On iNat, a complex is “a taxonomic rank between genus and species” so the group of snails in question couldn’t be a complex on iNat to use when IDing.

[image] Discussion about using secondary accounts for identifying (but not confirm your own IDs) someone desperately needs to help me tend pholcids. Depends on what issues are affecting Pholcidae. While many taxa may have similar issues, the circumstances are important. Are there misidentifica…

Frankly, the dataset suffers from all of those issues, but with respect to the topic here, the BugGuide characters are so commonly misinterpreted by well-meaning observers (e.g. Pholcus manueli versus phalangioides in the US), requiring an inordinate amount of ID reversals while curating Pholcus dat…

Reversing mass incorrect IDs

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Fixing a widespread misidentification General	19	1560	August 21, 2022
Correcting of widely misused taxa by an automatic process General	54	1841	January 26, 2024
A Kind Reminder To Only Identify What You Are Sure Of! General	31	2065	April 8, 2024
How much expertise should we have when identifying? General	73	6326	June 25, 2020
Typically IDed wrong General	72	3316	January 25, 2023

Reversing mass incorrect IDs

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