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Re: Using a rucksack in the Report Wizard

I'm using a rucksack in the report wizard to extract records for a list of species.

The rucksack includes three species which all have the same recommended taxon name, Sticta canariensis, in the recorder species dictionary. This is reasonable as they are all morphs of the same lichen (fungus + green algal photobiont, fungus + cyanobacterial photobiont, and fungus + both), but lichenologists record them separately and we need to report on them separately. They are shown as separate taxa in the species dictionary:
NHMSYS0020103022 (Sticta canariensis/dufourii BLS no. 2281)
NHMSYS0020103023 (Sticta dufourii BLS no. 1366)
NHMSYS0000360626 (Sticta canariensis s.str. BLS no. 1365)

So, all should be well. However, when the report wizard presents the list of species from the current rucksack only two of the three are shown, NHMSYS0020103023 is not and so all the records for that taxon are missed.

If I use current rucksack (expanded) I do get all three, but also pick up another 12000 records that I don't want, so that is not a solution.

What is going on?

Do I now have to check in case the report wizard is choosing to ignore other taxa in the rucksack as well? The list is >1500 long and the output nearly 30000 records so I'm not keen!

Janet

Janet Simkin
British Lichen Society

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Re: Using a rucksack in the Report Wizard

Could it be a dodgy synonomy? What are the extra 12000 records of? It does appear that in the BMS list S. dufouri maps to the genus Stricta which if expanded would give you all records below.

Gordon Barker
Biological Survey Data Manager
National Trust

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Re: Using a rucksack in the Report Wizard

We have a long-standing problem with the lichen species dictionaries in Recorder. The only up to date list is the one maintained by the BLS (the British Isles List of Lichens and Lichenicolous Fungi), and all our data is held against this, but unfortunately the preferred dictionary in Recorder is the BMS Fungi and Lichen list which is now quite out of date. Problems with the synonymy in the links between these give us all sorts of strange results in the report wizard but we seem to be able to get round some of these by not expanding taxa. Why that should help is a bit of mystery as it presumably only expands down the hierarchy rather than up, so it shouldn't make any difference.

I don't see how synonymy can account for this problem though. We have three taxa shown separately in the species dictionary and included in the rucksack, but the report wizard is only picking up two of them. We have had similar problems before and have ended up writing our own reports to use the actual taxon name instead of the one imposed on us by Recorder, but with the volume of data requests that we get each week now that just isn't practical.

I'll have to take another look at the nameserver and at the way the report wizard handles taxon names, but this part of the system has left me baffled before and I'm afraid it will again!

Janet

Janet Simkin
British Lichen Society

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Re: Using a rucksack in the Report Wizard

I was thinking that there might be a false synonymy to a higher level taxon. This could give the behaviour described if nothing is described at the high level, but lots in the taxa within it

Gordon Barker
Biological Survey Data Manager
National Trust