Using taxa from the List of additional names for data entry is another cause for concern as observations entered using this list in the taxon dictionary are not included in certain reports when users would expect them to be. I tested this with Melangyna compositarum/labiatarum, a hoverfly.
The following report wizard reports returned the observations for Melangyna, M. Compositarum and M. Labiatarum entered using the Recorder 3.3 list and the DIPTERA list, the preferred list for Diptera, but not observations for M. compositarum/labiatarum, entered using the List of additional names:
Report for Syrphidae, the family containing Melangyna, selected from the Recorder 3.3 list
Report for Melangyna selected from the Recorder 3.3 list
Report for Syrphidae selected from the DIPTERA list
Report for Melangyna selected from the DIPTERA list
Report using the DIPTERA list and ‘All taxa from list’
These reports should all have included observations for M. compositarum/labiatarum. Either the taxon dictionary or the way Recorder 6 does reports needs to be modified so that they are included. Other lists also need to be checked for this problem. If anyone finds examples, could they please post them on the forum to help ensure they are not overlooked.
The work around for this problem is to also select M. compositarum/labiatarum from the List of additional names when selecting taxa in the report wizard but this relies on users finding out which additional taxa need to be selected. In the case of doing a report for Diptera one thing that should help is the xml report on the number of species observations per taxon group. To run it in v6.14, select Reports – Run – System Reports – Statistics – St05. This will tell you how many observations you should have in a Diptera report although it includes unchecked, confidential and zero abundance observations as well as observations that are flagged as failed/pending verification. These will be excluded from a report wizard report unless you have removed these constraints. St03 – Number of observations per species – includes taxon list so if the result of this is copied or exported to Excel and sorted on taxon list you can see what lists have been used to enter your data. Looking for observations entered using lists like the List of additional names may help pinpoint observations that are being excluded from reports. It will not, however, help track down the problem reported by Craig Slawson 11/01/10 http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?pid=5668#p5668 where a report done selecting an order from the Recorder 3.3 list produced a different number of observations from a report done using the corresponding preferred list and neither included all the observations he was expecting.
The fact that the List of additional names isn’t arranged in a hierarchy is a nuisance. It means that it takes longer to open than other lists and that you can’t easily see which family, order etc. a taxon belongs to. I suspect this also contributes to the reporting problems above as it is probably a contributing factor to it not being linked through properly in NameServer.
Personally, I think the reporting problems that seem to be caused by the taxon dictionary need to be fixed as a priority, especially as users may not be aware that they are happening. In that, I would include the problems reported in the preceding posts. In my opinion, these should certainly take priority over nice-to-haves like the enhancements to the user interface that have been proposed, although we also need improvements to the import wizard especially the facility to export invalid items to Excel with an information column to indicate the issue, as mentioned in Lynn’s post, 24/11/09, http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?pid=5401#p5401 . If there is the money to fix the reporting problems like these and other priority problems, and to do the nice-to-haves, then I would welcome the nice-to-haves but not at the expenses of fixing reporting problems.
Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687
