Weird scientific names for New Zealand Brown Geckos

General
1

I’m really confused to find this list of ‘scientific’ names for the genus Woodworthia on iNat:

Woodworthia brunnea
Woodworthia central otago
Woodworthia chrysosiretica
Woodworthia cromwell
Woodworthia kaikoura
Woodworthia korowai
Woodworthia maculata
Woodworthia marlborough mini
Woodworthia otago southland large
Woodworthia southern alps
Woodworthia southern mini

How are these accepted scientific names? I understand the need to distinguish between what appear to be distinct species or subspecies or whatever, but I’ve never seen anything like this. I mean, Woodworthia otago southland large? How can this be scientifically explained? Genus Woodworthia, species otago, subspecies southland and forma large? Can someone enlighten me?

2

I think they’re undescribed species that were added as described species incorrectly. You could try flagging them.

3

They aren’t scientific names; they are unpublished “working” names. There is a taxon change flag coming that will remove them:

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_changes/173036

4

I don’t think it is clever removing them. They are recognized taxa, the NZ field guides list them under these working names, they are just not taxonomically described yet. Taxonomy has to be our tool though. Removing them and lumping all brown wee geckos as the same thing again is a stepdown.

5

Hi, thanks for your question. I’m going to close the topic so that the discussion about specific taxa occurs on iNaturalist itself rather than the forum. Please use flag space to hold those discussions. Thank you!