[Taxacom] taxonomic names databases

[Stephen Thorpe]

Hi Nadia,
"Those are extreme examples"
Extreme perhaps, but do we really know how prevalent?
Cheers,
Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 23/8/16, Nadia Talent <nadia.talent at utoronto.ca> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] taxonomic names databases
 To: "Stephen Thorpe" <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
 Cc: "taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Tuesday, 23 August, 2016, 1:41 AM
 
 Hi Stephen,
 
 Those are extreme examples,
 seemingly Leptus japonicus and Crepis japonicus were turned
 into the not even remotely related Cleopus japonicus. The
 second, but not the first might perhaps be an OCR
 phenomenon? As for the first, I've seen what might be a
 similar mechanism, but the names that were mixed up were
 plausibly synonyms, differing in the species epithet, as if
 some other database were the source of hypercorrection
 (Allamanda neriifolia was put in place of Allamanda
 schottii; the replacement is, strangely, the junior
 synonym).
 
 Perhaps a weevil
 genus name exists that an overly imaginative OCR corrector
 could mistake for Leptus, and a synonymy database lurking
 somewhere then links it to Cleopus.
 
 I would argue that synonyms do not belong in
 the "Scientific Names on this Page" list; if they
 are to appear at all, it should only be as a clearly marked
 option. I hope nobody is using those "Scientific Names
 on this Page" as data for analysis!
 
 Nadia 
 -------------------------------
 Nadia Talent
 Research
 Associate,
 Royal Ontario Museum,
 Green Plant Herbarium (TRT),
 Department of Natural History,
 100 Queen's Park,
 Toronto,
 Canada, M5S 2C6
 http://nadiatalent.github.io
 
 On Aug 22, 2016, at 0:52, Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
 wrote:
 
 > Here is an
 example of what can and does go wrong with automated
 methods: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/name/Cleopus_japonicus_Wingelm$,_1914
 > If you click on either of the linked
 pages, you will find no mention of Cleopus japonicus, except
 in the "Scientific Names on this Page" field on
 the left! Something is going awry and askew!
 > 
 >
 Stephen