Species level ID not replacing higher level suggestions

Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can.

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Website

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About):

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Chrome

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/77733201#activity_identification_0dcca7da-0f64-4549-b693-1215b586f4fc

Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/):

Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.): I’ve seen multiple instances in my observations where a lower level ID does not replace my initial suggestion unless I click “Agree.” Since I don’t have the expertise to ID stream mayflies, I thought this was a good time to report this. At the time of this report, there was on the initial suggestion (Family level)


and one (expert) ID to species level.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

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This is not a bug, this is how adding subspecies IDs (not species IDs) to observations sitting at higher taxa, e.g. family, works

See https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/leading-subspecies-ids-should-change-the-obs-taxon-like-leading-ids-of-other-ranks/139 for a feature request to change this

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Please, help me understand why it works this way? If it’s lower level than originally suggested upon submission, why doesn’t it change to reflect a narrowing down of the ID?

So, as a user with goal of identifying everything in my yard, do you still recommend that I leave it as is? Would agreeing (even without expertise to do so) attract the attention of experts needed to finalize the ID? Or confer other advantages, like addition to projects, etc? Pros & cons, please, of agreeing?

This is frustrating, but working as intended, so I’ll close this report. Please see the associated feature request to discuss changes to the way subspecies IDs work.

1 Like