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Re: Harpalus tardus/froelichi

Another of these irritatingly frequent inconsistencies emerged when I exported some records of Harpalus beetles the other day.

One record with a det of H. tardus from the R3.3 list (an old import) TLIK --106906 is displayed and exported to Excel as H. froelichi in R6.

The same record was exported to Excel as H. tardus from R2002 (I know, because I have that export file).

The record was imported from R2002 to R6 when I upgraded.

That same record is mapped as H. tardus on the Gateway, exported from R6 about a year ago in NBN Exchange format.

I fail to see how, given that we are told that the Gateway and R6 use the same dictionaries, you get this difference.

There is no indication on the Gateway returns that either name is a synonym of the other.

Whatever the explanation, the result is wonderfully unhelpful.

M.

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Re: Harpalus tardus/froelichi

This is another manifestation of the problem reported under topic http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=2714. There are two entries for H.tardus in the R3.3 Dictionary. One of which (NBNSYS0000106906) is considered in the R3,3 list as a synonym of H.froelichi and the other (NBNSYS0000070576)  which is considered as H.tardus. I don't know what was happening with the taxonomy, but what is there suggests that during the life of the  R3.3 list  there was some confusion over the two taxa. Possibly the name , H.tardus was sometime used for H.tardus and sometimes for H.froelichi.    If the preferred name is used for the output of  TLI  key  NBNSYS0000106906 it will report as H.froelichi. If the Recommened name is used then  this will report Harpalus (Harpalus) tardus from the BEETLES Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles.

Probably the best way of fixing this in your database is to change the TLI key from  NBNSYS0000106906  to NBNSYS0000070576, which could either be done manually or with a batch update or query.

Mike Weideli

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Re: Harpalus tardus/froelichi

Thanks, Mike.  I have already done the change.  Fortunately it was only one record.  It is nevertheless unsatisfactory to have such inconsistency in the name displayed by the same record depending on where you look in a supposedly coherent and integrated system.

M.

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Re: Harpalus tardus/froelichi

I don't know about this specific case, but most of the time apparent anomalies in tables are reflecting taxonomic changes or issues. It is not uncommon for a taxon name to have a different meaning  depending on the context in which it is used.  In Recorder 6  this is normally reflected by a taxon name having a different meaning depending on the list on which it appears, but I suspect that the R3.3 list was in use for such a long time, that some taxon names  have ended up with two different meanings within the same list.   

There are a number of ways changes in the meaning of a name can occur. An example which occurs fairly frequently is where it is discovered that what was one species in fact contains two. One of which corresponds with the original description and type species and one which is different and therefore worthy of species status in its own right. The split resulting from this gives one species with exactly the same name as that  original and a new species with a new name. In Recorder the original name will have a different meaning depending on the situation in which it is used. For example on an older list (say R3.3) is used the original name it will in  effect be an aggregate of the two taxa which  appear on a newer list. Normally Recorder can correctly  reflects this , because there are different TLI keys depending on the list chosen, so the list chosen has an impact on what is meant by a name.  In this situation to get accurate reporting and for the Gateway (which only uses TV keys) to correctly relect the position  there should also be four  taxon version keys, one for the original name, one with the same taxon name as the original, but representing the taxa without the split out species, a third one for the new species and a fourth one for the aggregate of the two new species.   NameServer should map the original TV key to the aggregate TV key and not to the TV of the species with the same name. The problem I think is that these and other complex splits/renaming are difficult to identify or understand unless you follow a group closely. For this reason the NHM have not always been aware and sometimes  a name has only one TV key, when it should have more than one. The only way this sort of thing will be resolved is if those with an understanding of the taxonomy and its history, identify these problems and ask for them to be fixed. This still leaves the practical problem of deciding which TLI or TV key to use when processing data. With new data in Recorder it should  be safe to use the latest list,  but when importing or keying data from old records in theory some consideration needs to be given to the lists to be used.

Mike Weideli