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Topic: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

I am confused by the way Recorder sometimes displays the 'preferred name' of some species - probably 99.99% are OK, but some don't appear to be consistent

Example:
Large Skipper Butterfly
in the hierarchical tree of Survey-Event-Sample-Taxon I though the left panel always displayed the 'preferred name', however, this is displayed as Ochlodes faunus if entered as O.faunus or O.venatus subsp.faunus if entered as such
in a Report displaying Recommended Taxon Name - displays Ochlodes sylvanus

It looks as if the left panel now displays the entered taxon name rather than the preferred - is this an intended change, accidental, or me having 'brain-fade!'?

Craig

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

I think Ochlodes is broken - see http://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=3301

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

Charlie,

I think Large Skipper has now been fixed, in reports I get Recommended Taxon = Ochlodes sylvanus and Recommended Common Name = Large Skipper

Large Skipper was possibly a poor choice as there have been problem, but it does the same with Blue Tit - Cyanistes caeruleus is preferred and comes up as the Recommended, but records entered as Parus caeruleus now display as Parus in the hierarchy tree, I'm sure these used to be translated into Cyanistes 'on the fly'

My query was really about the change in behavious of Recorder, previously I seem to remember the left panel of the hierarchy window showing the preferred taxonomic name irrespective of the name in the determination, it now appears to display the name in the determination and not the preferred

Craig

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

Hmm, yes so it has - hadn't noticed that.

If I enter Parus caeruleus from the BIRDS checklist it comes out as Cyanistes in the hierachy but if I use e.g. the RSPB checklist it remains as Parus caeruleus, although Mikes "extra info" addin says the recommended name is Cyanistes.

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

Is this not due to the confusion between preferred and recommended names. I seem to remember discussing this before and that the preferred name belongs in some way to the list against which a taxon was recorded, while the recommended name is an overarching one which gives the 'official' position.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

Hi Rob,

OK that is a subtle use of terms I'd not realised - I think this answers my query, I notice that Epilobium angustifolium records entered off the Rec3 list do display as Chamerion a. in the hierarchy window

Craig

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Strange behaviour in 'preferred name'

If I remember correctly, if you look at the INDEX_TAXON_NAME table, for any given TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY you can obtain the PREFERRED_NAME, but this is list-specific.

If you then take the RECOMMENDED_TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY and join to the TAXON_LIST_ITEM_KEY of a second copy of the INDEX_TAXON_NAME table, then the PREFERRED_NAME in the second table is the Recommended name.

My interpretation then is that the recommended name is the preferred name as supplied by the preferred list for the taxon.

Rob Large
Wildlife Sites Officer
Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre