I have created a number of lists over the past few weeks. I have been using the ‘add batch’ method. Overall this saves a lot of time and I am thankful for its existence. That said, there do seem to be a few quirks some of which could be bugs. I would like to share my experience and would be interested to hear other people’s experiences or views before potentially submitting bug reports or feature requests. I appreciate that ‘lists’ are not part of the priorities for the year but would like to capture the experience while it is still fresh in my mind.
From a batch import, here are the possibilities that I came across:
(A) Exact match. This is the most common and simplest. A taxon exactly matches a valid taxon. It is added immediately.
(B) Correct ‘matched several different taxa’. It apparently has matched multiple taxa. Clicking ‘lookup’ gives a list to choose from. In this case, there is genuinely more than one taxa offered to choose from. I think this occurs in at least 4 different scenarios: (i) when only providing species level name to a species with subspecies; (ii) when the providing a subspecies autonym; (iii) when species name is the the genus name repeated; (iv) when hybrids exist.
© Incorrect ‘matched several different taxa’. It apparently has matched multiple taxa. Clicking ‘lookup’ gives a list to choose from. In this case, it only gives one option anyway so it’s not clear why it isn’t added instantly.
(D) Direct taxon swap. When the inputted taxon is not valid but there has been a taxon swap then ‘matched several different taxa’ appears. Clicking lookup then displays the valid taxon which can be selected. This valid taxon is indicated by: invalid taxon (= valid taxon)
(E) Not found. When there is no valid taxon match and no taxon swap then ‘not found’ is reported. Clicking lookup can provide options sometimes. Search external name providers is also given as an option.
(F) Auto adds alternative taxon. Sometimes an invalid taxon automatically selects a valid taxon and this is added without explicitly giving an indication that this taxon isn’t the same as the inputted taxon. Compare with (D).
(G) Inactive taxon added. Sometimes there is a match to an invalid taxon and this taxon is automatically added to the list.
(H) Unplaced taxon added. Rarely a taxon will match a taxon that should be invalid but currently exists detached from the taxonomy.
In terms of behaviour: (A), (B), (D) and (E) probably function as desired; © is a potential bug that if resolved could save a fair amount of time when importing large batches; (F) is not as I would expect and in my opinion should follow (D) to indicate to the user there is a mapping to a valid taxon - I wonder what is going on behind the scenes that (D) and (F) get treated differently; (G) probably shouldn’t be possible; (H) is not desirable but it’s probably not an issue with import but with taxon existing detached from the overall taxonomy in the first place. Finally, for (B), I would find it useful to have an ‘automatically add exact matches’ box as most of the time I input exactly the taxon I want to add.
To help illustrate the above, if you input these taxa to a list using ‘add batch’ you should see all behaviours listed from (A), (B) (i)-(iv), …, (H).
Accipiter badius cenchroides
Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae
Ardea intermedia intermedia
Falcipennis falcipennis
Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus
Amaurornis cinerea
Aerodramus fuciphagus germani
Alectoris magna magna
Anser cygnoid
Caprimulgus indicus jotaka
Accipiter nisus dementjevi