Hi everyone
I had a feeling that the lep list would be a bit controversial - apologies if it is causing trouble. :)
We (all the UKSI managers) have always tried to remain true to the author's work and import what they give us in the layout that they have chosen. There is usually more flexibility when the list hasn't been printed as a hard-copy and I will advise authors and help people to create checklists if they are inexperienced. With the leps it was pretty clear that the authors had chosen to go with trinomials over binomials, where they exist, because that's how the data was given to me and that's how it has been printed in the hard-copy too.
It proved to be quite a headache for me when it came to checking the linkages because I had to keep allowing for trinomials linked directly to genera but I think I have managed to maintain the binomials in the master taxonomy (Organism table) and all of the usual binomials still exist in the system - they just don't appear if you select to record only against the new checklist.
Technically it wouldn't be impossible to insert binomials into the checklist - just fiddly and I would need to seek the author's permission to do that, as it is their work I would be changing. We have discussed other issues (such as adding authors to the higher rank names) and I also need to bring in the "Appendix A: Adventive" species as a separate list*. So work on the leps list is ongoing and what we have now isn't cast in stone. I just had to get the basics in (basic but still over 6000 rows!) and then move on to handle a few other issues such as the new freshwater algal checklist.
Let me raise the concerns with David Agassiz and see what he says. :)
Best wishes,
Chris R.
* as an aside, would people like the adventives listing in a separate checklist, as the authors have done, or would they like them adding as additional rows at the bottom of the existing checklist?
Chris Raper, Manager of the UK Species Inventory, Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity,
Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD. (tel: 020 7942 5894)
also Tachinid Recording Scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk/)