1 Reply by Syrphus

  • Syrphus
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  • From: Strathpeffer, Highland
  • Registered: 16-12-2008
  • Posts: 535

Re: Something odd about Tegenaria

I am venturing outside my comfort zone (in at least two ways) with spiders.  However, I see something distinctly strange in one of my records.

On the Gateway, there is a record of T. atrica from near Inverness NH64 (you will find it easily - there is only one).

That record in R6 appears as T. saeva.  The NBNG record went direct from R6.

Chasing the table keys, I find that the saeva=atrica record has a LIST_ITEM_KEY -114216, and a TVK -8838.

Another record of saeva (as saeva in both R6 and NBNG) has  a LIST_ITEM_KEY -92687, and a TVK -8837.

Both in TAXON_LIST_ITEM have a preferred name of -92687 (=saeva).

As far as I am aware (NBNG and the R6 dictionary seem to confirm) there has been no taxonomic confusion between atrica and saeva, so my conclusion is that there is an error in the R6 dictionary that has synonymised the two, with saeva as the preferred name.

Why NBN should have treated them differently is for someone else to investigate.

If I am correct, the preferred name for atrica needs changing.  If I am wrong, my apologies, but I would welcome clarification.

Murdo

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2 Reply by burkmarr

  • burkmarr
  • burkmarr
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  • From: Preston Montford
  • Registered: 14-05-2006
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Re: Something odd about Tegenaria

I looked at the BAS checklist (http://www.britishspiders.org.uk/html/bas.php?page=checklist). Both T. saeva and T. atrica are full species but, confusingly, T. atrica is also listed as a 'previous name' of T. saeva. Perhaps this is the source of the confusion. (Both species, together with T. gigantea, are considered to be part of the 'Tegenaria atrica group' - http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/273/.)

Richard Burkmar
Biodiversity Project Officer
Field Studies Council

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3 Reply by Syrphus

  • Syrphus
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Re: Something odd about Tegenaria

Thanks, Richard.  That might explain the origin of the problem, but not why the 'saeva' in R6 exports to NBNG as atrica.  The synonymy that you get from the Gateway does not list saeva as a synonym of atrica or v.v.

At the very least there seems to be an inconsistency, and I am still convinced there is an error in the system somewhere.  Something for Charles and the arachnologists to sort out.

M.

Syrphus's Website

4 Reply by Graham French (edited by Graham French 07-01-2011 09:58:18)

  • Graham French
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Re: Something odd about Tegenaria

Hello M.

Looking in the species dictionary the problem seems to be in the Recorder 3.3 list which you used to record this species. In this species list the Taxon_List_Item_Key NBNSYS0000114216 points to the Taxon_Version_Key for Tegenaria atrica (NBNSYS0000008838) which was then supplied to the NBN Gateway and appears on the NBN Gateway as T.atrica.

However the preferred name for this Taxon_List_Item_Key in the Taxon_List_Item table points to the Taxon_List_Item_Key NBNSYS0000092687 which is the one for T.saeva, so presumably this is why T.saeva appears in Recorder 6. This seems incorrect and needs changing in this table

The Taxon_List_Item_Keys for these 2 species in the preferred spider species list (Checklist of British Spiders) seem to be both OK and I would use this list and not Recorder 3.3

Best wishes

Graham
NBN Technical Liaison Officer

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5 Reply by Syrphus

  • Syrphus
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  • From: Strathpeffer, Highland
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Re: Something odd about Tegenaria

Thanks, Graham.  I thought as much.  The original record was input to R3.3 and imported first to R2002 and then R6, so your suggestion makes sense.  I have checked with the determiner and the taxon is T. atrica (one of very few in the north, so it is important to get it right).

Murdo

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