I noticed the cosmopolitan terrestrial flatworm, Bipalium kewense, is not marked as invasive by iNaturalist in Colombia, but according to this paper:
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-abstract/79/1/61/2661660
The native range is Asia? Is that paper outdated or mistaken, or is iNat not updated? Just wondering. Thanks! -Andrew
Hi, Andrew, welcome to the Forum. It may be something the specialists in that species should discuss, unsure how many read here, so maybe it merits a flag for curation on the taxon?
PD: I am in Mexico and iNaturlist lists as introduced here and common name Planaria Asiática Cabeza de Martillo.
This is often the answer - iNat’s database of native vs. introduced isn’t near comprehensive.
Here are instructions for how to mark a taxon as native or introduced: https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000176171-how-to-add-or-edit-establishment-means-in-inaturalist
Question, if I am reading that right, does that mean a person meeting the requirements can do this for “Colombia”, but all the places within Colombia would not automatically apply the introduced label? So a person would need to methodically then do the states, then regions, then towns, then colonies, etc?
In that Help article, it also says
If you are a Curator, you will have the option to “Apply establishment means to descendant places”.
My understanding is that regular iNat users can set the Establishment Means for a taxon to be “Introduced” on a checklist-by-checklist basis. Curators can set the Establishment Means for a place such as Colombia and apply that to all the departments, municipalities, etc. within Colombia.
You would not need to do that. The introduced label will appear on all observations indicating the species is introduced in Colombia, the only difference you would have in practice by applying the establishment means to descendant places is that the label would show “Introduced in *specific region*” rather than “Colombia”.
Thank you both for these explanations. I still do not quite understand the complexities of iNaturalist but I am not making edits (you are all welcome, hahaha) . I do like to try to grasp the concepts though, so I am grateful.
Let’s take Virginia opossum as an example. It’s native to eastern North America, so it’s listed as Native to the United States and to individual states where it’s native, eg Virginia. However, it’s been introduced to places like California. So it’s listed as Introduced in California, even though overall it’s listed as Native to the United States.
If a non-curator decides to change the establishment means of Virginia opossum for the United States checklist to Introduced they won’t be able to force that new status down to the individual states and thereby unintentionally disrupt the work people have done at the state levels or lower.
But a curator could choose force the new United States establishment means to all the Places under United States, the assumption being that they would understand the ramifications better and be more careful with their decision. And they’re shown this confirmation pop-up if they decide to apply an establishment means to descendent places:
So it is not automatic if a Curator does it then, correct? It is an opt in only available to Curators?
Correct, sorry I wasn’t clear before.
Zero need to apologize – you are basically explaining haute cuisine to a marshmallow.
Thanks, Tony. That example really helped. I haven’t done much with “establishment means” before, but I may try now.
