Taxonomic resources for insects - wiki

Curators
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I’ve had some folks asking me about resources for insects that aren’t listed in the Curator Guide, so thought I would shamelessly take @bobby23’s journal post and move it here to the Curators section on the forum. This is a wiki, so anyone can add to it, and hopefully it’s more easily findable here on the forum. :)

iNaturalist Taxonomic Authorities

As of April 2020, iNaturalist follows these sources for certain insect groups globally and in certain places:

See more detail on iNaturalist policies and taxonomic authorities in the Curator Guide.

Other insect orders with complete sources

Other orders with partial sources

Other orders completely missing sources

  • Archaeognatha (bristletails)
  • Mecoptera (scorpionflies, hangingflies, and allies)
  • Strepsiptera (twisted-winged insects)
  • Zygentoma (silverfishes)

Thanks Bobby and others for compiling this list!

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@bouteloua If I want to add a new regional approved source, would I first run it though iNat staff for approval?

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I would flag the taxon first, iNat would want to see some community buy in.

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The site has previously determined it will not do this. It is not a taxonomic resource, and the data is easy to access in many other places.

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Hi @brian_d, the open feature request for that is listed here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/include-author-citations-for-taxa/671

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I really question if inat should be considered as or consider taking on a role as a taxonomic reference. It doesn’t really align with the site objectives.

Especially given the site focus on all areas of life. Larger sites with professional and or paid employees are struggling with a role of a global reference. Much larger crowd sourced sites (I’m looking at you Wikispecies and Wikidata) are not remotely close to succeeding at it.

I fear trying to take on this role would take focus and resources from what the site is aiming to do.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Include author citations for taxa

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The World Odonata List link is no longer working; is this the new, correct, link?

https://www2.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/dragonflies/world-odonata-list2/

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I’m still not clear what the end purpose of trying to make the site more of a taxonomy reference will serve. Professional taxonomists/biologists etc are not going to be using iNat as a reference. Amateur field naturalists don’t need it for the purposes they are using the site for.

It just seems like taking on a massive task that the site does not have the resources for, which is being done and can be leveraged from elsewhere. With the caveat that those other places which have far greater resources dedicated to trying to do it are still not remotely close to succeeding.

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(re-opened at the request of @michaelpirrello)

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speciesfile.org sites now say " All old/original SpeciesFile websites have transitioned to read-only status as of 14 August 2023." so further edits to this list will probably be required.

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For clarification @bouteloua @tiwane, the resources listed under “Other insect orders with complete sources” and “Other orders with partial sources” currently lack official standing as taxonomic authorities, correct? As such, would the best way to get them implemented be to create a flag for the covered taxon, allow discussion, and then make a forum post proposing them as taxonomic authorities for those groups?

Because of numerous inconsistencies between BugGuide’s outdated taxonomy and the Catalogue of the Craneflies of the World, there have recently been multiple flags asking to adopt the generic classification from CCW, but a determination of whether to follow the CCW or BugGuide scheme needs to be made before these changes can be curated. This is further complicated by several species that have already been duplicated and several non-American species that have only been published under the genera used by CCW.

Thanks!

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I replaced https://www.zin.ru/Animalia/Siphonaptera/index.htm with https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/dataset/54170 for fleas. The list at The Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences seems to no longer be maintained. The Lewis List was updated this year and the Catalog of Life recently switched to the Lewis List.

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I updated the link for Systema Dipterorum as the old one (http://sd.zoobank.org/) was broken, and it can now be found here: http://www.diptera.org/

This reset the visit count, but it was a popular link with 34 clicks

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