Where does iNat source taxa listings?

[Megachile]

I’ve been wading into the thickets of taxonomic nomenclature lately for a few mite taxa, and it got me wondering: where do the iNat taxa listings actually come from? Are they manually created by users, or imported from some existing database? It seems like it has to be the former, since I’m looking at taxa (eg Aculops rhois) that have no results in EOL, BOLD, ADW, BHL, or TOL. But if they’re created by individual users, is there a place where you can look at the history of the taxon on iNat–who created it, what name changes have been made, combinations or splits, notes on any disputes that might have taken place, etc?

What I’d especially like to see is the source the person who created it was referring to when they chose that name. In this case, iNat has both Aculops rhois (454 observations) and Aculops toxicophagus (0 observations). A toxicophagus is the name used in the main plant mite resource I’ve been using while A rhois isn’t mentioned at all, and I’m still struggling to trace it in the primary lit. It seems like there should be a way to see where it came into iNat. I assume I’m just missing something?

[loarie]

Curators can see that information. Aculops rhois was “Created by kueda on October 15, 2013”

[bouteloua]

@Megachile

where do the iNat taxa listings actually come from? Are they manually created by users, or imported from some existing database?

It’s a mixture of those two. As Scott says, only curators and staff are able to see that information at this time.

@Megachile

is there a place where you can look at the history of the taxon on iNat–who created it, what name changes have been made, combinations or splits, notes on any disputes that might have taken place, etc?

There are a few places you can look:

Under “Curation”, you check to see if there are any current or old flags:

And on the Taxonomy tab > Taxon Changes will list any synonym changes/merges/splits: