Taxacom: a class of errors in Worms (and similar databases)

[Paul Kirk]

Hi Tony,

By some strange coincidence I am currently checking names of fungi (sensu lato) in Index Fungorum where an infraspecific name (e.g. variety, or subspecies) is currently listed as published before the parent species. Many have been resolved, typically because the parent species, a combination, was also published when the infraspecific name was published. This is just a consequence of inadequate 'synchronization' with early listings like Saccardo Sylloge Fungorum (late 19th to early 20th century) and Zahlbruckner's lists of lichen forming fungi (early 20th century). Confounded by some missing digitization of pertinent books / journals or lack of access to digitized content due to 'copyright'...

Onward and upward as the adage goes,

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Tony Rees via Taxacom
Sent: 23 February 2025 17:55
To: Erikjan Rijkers <er at xs4all.nl>; World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) <info at marinespecies.org>; taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: a class of errors in Worms (and similar databases)

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Dear Erikjan,

I believe you are right. I cannot think of a circumstance where a species name without parentheses in the authorship should have an earlier year than its containing genus, so that should be a sign that something is incorrect.
My database (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irmng.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C464ef31967e34acb05d308dd544db9d6%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638759414990889697%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dmXAXqkkUvsto9se4VOMqWwPbE0QnpljDB%2FHXttoFe0%3D&reserved=0) has inherited a large number of species binomials from other systems, but they have not undergone rigorous checking in this respect and possibly never will, until we have resources to devote to that task. But for other systems with more available editor effort, this could certainly be a consideration for auto-checking, I would say.

Regards - Tony

Tony Rees, New South Wales, Australia
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On Sun, 23 Feb 2025 at 18:57, Erikjan Rijkers via Taxacom < taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> This is a request to taxonomic database implementors/admins. The Worms 
> database is just an example.
>
> On page
>    https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marinespecies.org%2Faphia.php%3Fp%3Dtaxdetails%26id%3D344099&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C464ef31967e34acb05d308dd544db9d6%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638759414990926865%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7EMZYnpJgGyOUBbRnYVXyDQUF7%2Be1TkqYO4RRPdRAL4%3D&reserved=0
>
> There is the species name and a genus name:
>    Papasula abbotti Ridgway, 1893
>    Papasula Olson & Warheit, 1988
>
> These are, of course, literature references. Ridgway in 1893 described 
> Sula abbotti [1]. It seems clear that parentheses are needed, like so:
>    Papasula abbotti (Ridgway, 1893)
>
> The year of the genus being more recent than the species name, i.e.,
> 1988 > 1893, already implied that parentheses are needed.
>
> It seems to me such cases can be easily found automatically and 
> changes could be made, perhaps also automatically, or at least flagged 
> to the
> editor(s) concerned as a change that is probably needed.
>
> Perhaps such changes or flagging could be implemented? It seems such a 
> small and simple improvement.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Erikjan Rijkers
>
>
> [1] https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.biodiversitylibrary.org%2Fpage%2F15780967&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C464ef31967e34acb05d308dd544db9d6%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638759414990938603%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Nd5CttVX1UPcQNctfSiD6GoP4hsRDKXlCWfAQruGrBI%3D&reserved=0
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