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Home » Forums » Taxonomy Proposals

Myriapoda

In preparation for expected visits from Dr Rowland Shelley, we would like to prepare the taxonomy section of myriapods. We will follow the taxonomy at myriapoda.org - Dr Shelley's webpage. Our first proposal is to simplify the categories under Myriapoda. Class, Order, Family Genus seem fine. Right now we have one listed subclass, one listed superfamily, two listed subfamilies, and three listed tribes each of which has only one genus. We feel this just adds to the complication of the taxonomic tree and are suggesting that those seven pages be removed from the guide and their images placed simply under the correct Class, Order, Family, etc. Comments?
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Contributed by john and jane balaban on 2 March, 2007 - 8:59pm

sounds good to me
The same idea could be applied to a number of other sections in the Guide, and it wouldn't necessarily cause information to be lost. For example, if a family contains a single North American subfamily, the subfamily could be removed and a statement added to the family's Info page, saying something like "all North American taxa in this family belong to subfamily such-and-such". The same could be done with single superfamilies, tribes, etc. assuming, of course, that we have access to recent North American lists containing the necessary info as a reference.

I'd like to start on the Moth tree, which was unintentionally made more complex than necessary because I was following the "full" All-Leps taxonomy at the time. Comments?
… Robin McLeod, 3 March, 2007 - 7:34am login or register to post comments

 
We would certainly agree.
With very complicated species groups, the intermediate taxonomic levels can be helpful, but when only some subclasses or superfamilies or subfamilies are used, we find it very confusing to follow the taxonomic tree and often end up clicking on 'view all' so we can figure out what we're looking for.

Speaking of Moths, what do you think about adding a page at the end for moth images that people like Bob Patterson have not been able to ID, but contributors are still hoping someone might come along and ID? We always find working with moths difficult because there are 40 pages of unidentified images right at the front. There are a number of images that Bob is still working on, which are fine to keep up front, but many he has admitted he won't be able to do that just clutter up those initital pages. We have long felt there should be an addendum with "Moth images looking for serious help!" Just a thought!
… john and jane balaban, 3 March, 2007 - 6:14pm login or register to post comments

 
I wonder
if we could have a choice. One with the basic taxonomy and one with the full taxonomy. An added tab, or a settings choice?
… Lynette Schimming, 7 March, 2007 - 1:07pm login or register to post comments

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