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Home » Forums » General Discussion

taxonomic changes

Since it's now possible for editors to revise Guide page information contributed by other editors, I'm thinking it would add to the spirit of collaboration if proposals for taxonomic changes were first posted (preferably in the forum) for everyone's consideration.

Three examples: the Balabans suggested the Odonata of North America site as an authority for BugGuide to follow in naming Odonata. Joel gave this page and the newest edition of An Introduction to the Study of Insects as examples that treat Rhyparochromidae as a family, separate from Lygaeidae. And if we followed Borowiec's Cassidinae of the World, the names of three tortoise beetles currently in the Guide would need changing.

Rather than having individual editors possibly acting on their own (or NOT acting for fear of others saying "Hey, what happened to such and such?") I'd prefer to see a process of Proposal - Discussion - Consensus/Decision - Action. A number of good suggestions for taxonomic changes are scattered throughout BugGuide but in most cases the suggestions languish and nothing gets done.
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Contributed by Robin McLeod on 24 March, 2005 - 2:34pm

Good idea
A great idea for large scale changes or just to establish some sort of standard for particular sections of the guide.

Where reasonable, I would lean toward internet references since everyone should have access to those.
… Troy Bartlett, 24 March, 2005 - 8:24pm login or register to post comments

I like the idea,
it could go into the Forums Articles page under a heading such as "Taxonomic Proposals". This Forum has few topics and thus a Taxonomic Proposal or some such heading would likely always be close to the top and not lost below dozens of comments.
… Tony-2, 24 March, 2005 - 2:58pm login or register to post comments

 
I'll do one better
And create a whole new forum for that.
… Troy Bartlett, 24 March, 2005 - 8:20pm login or register to post comments

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