Flagger | Content Author | Content | Reason | Flag Created | Resolved by | Resolution |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
upupa-epops | Genus Condylostylus |
add species groups from BugGuide as complexes |
Feb. 5, 2020 23:29:03 +0000 | upupa-epops |
see comments |
I think it really depends on how far you want to stretch the "Complex is recognized in the literature" condition from the curator guide. As far as I know the information on BG is based on more or less casual remarks about putative relationships in Robinson's 1964 "A Synopsis of the Dolichopodidae of the Southeastern United States and Adjacent Regions." But the group composition on BG does not strictly follow Robinson's assertions. For example, Robinson does not mention C. longitalus as part of the C. sipho group. Also, I may be wrong about this, but I think the raison d'être for iNat species complexes is not to help us put things in buckets for species that are hard to tell apart based on photographs. Rather it is for species that are difficult to tease apart even for scientists, especially if there are doubts about the validity of some of the species in the complex. That seems to be the case for all the vertebrate species complexes that I have come across, and it is true for the one Diptera species complex I have created.
Thanks! Yeah, I agree that this probably wasn't what the species complex taxon was originally intended to be used for. Part of my justification for suggesting using it like this was the response to my question here lumping them together: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-are-species-complexes-treated/404/9
However, it's probably not the best to go off of just that.
The Ocyptamus cylindricus "complex" I created a while back was similarly just a group of species and not strictly a complex, although there was a genetic study that found it was monophyletic.
Perhaps I should write a feature request for the forum for a new "species group" taxa between subgenus and species complex?
From the forum thread: "Species groups and species complexes are work-around solutions for populations of closely related organisms which have not yet been fully addressed systematically and taxonomically."
I think that's really the issue, not so much whether you want to call it a species complex or a species group. The species in the Condylostylus groups can be fairly easily distinguished with specimens in hand and in some cases also on the basis of good macro photos covering multiple angles. There's no taxonomic conundrum here.
I could do this but I just wanted to know if there are good reasons not to - for example if there's nothing like them in the literature? @treegrow