Confidence

[Alan Whittemore]

Regarding Indonesian specimens which were given different species
names by different taxonomists, Renaud Fortuner wrote:

> 2) Why were some species misidentified?
> Identifiers not expert enough? Specimens in poor condition? Use of difficult
> characters? In other words, look at the confidence factors and try to find out
> what went wrong.

How sure are we that these determinations were really wrong?  In the
current state of the art, many tropical species have multiple names that
have never been synonymized.  It is entirely possible that both names were
correct in some (perhaps many) of these cases.  (Of course, there is
obviously still a problem, but not one of misplaced confidence in the
identification).