I had a complaint from a wasp expert about this genus (Copidosoma) showing up as a member of Chalcidoidea (the superfamily) rather than Encyrtidae (the family) when it is identified. See for example:
Chalcidoidea is not wrong, but it’s less helpful or specific. I was going to try to fix this, but I can’t see the problem - the genus is grafted correctly to the family and I don’t know why iNat is choosing to list the superfamily instead…
In order to make the label more accessible I think it looks for the next highest taxon that has a vernacular name if its parent doesn’t have one. I added a test name to Encyrtidae and got this result:
Thanks! That’s unfortunate and would be something that needs to be corrected, IMO. In this case, the vernacular name (Chalcidoid Wasps) is no more helpful or enlightening than the latin name, it’s just a recapitulation of that name.
What I did was add the common name “Encyrtid Wasps” for Encyrtidae. This is a standard naming convention I see in insect guides and the like, but I feel like this is only a temporary solution.
