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bouteloua Genus Cotesia

complex for Cotesia congregata?

Feb. 25, 2020 14:26:27 +0000 bdagley

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copying comment from @botanicaltreasures

On occasion a single species will represent a whole group of lesser known or harder to distinguish species. Apparantly Cotesia congregata already serves this role for all the Cotesia species that parasitize Sphinx caterpillars (although unacknowledged as yet). Until the cocoons hatch out the tiny wasps it is impossible to verify the exact species of Cotesia, but we can know the host caterpillar ID. At the moment, the only truly accurate choice is to bump it back to the genus Cotesia which ignores the knowledge we have of the host caterpillar’s identity. The genus Cotesia has an even wider variety of hosts and wide variety of cocoon styles to choose from (clustered, individual, white or yellow, on top or underneath or beside or around the caterpillar). By creating a Cotesia complex for Sphingidae we would be able to have a category at research level. A complex for this would narrow down the choice without sacrificing accuracy.
Please check out my project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bus-passengers-parasitoids-on-or-in-caterpillars. Thanks for your help!
Posted by bouteloua about 4 years ago

I am not familiar with this group and haven't looked into it, but noting the relevant section of the curator guide:

Species Complexes
As of January 2019, "complex", a taxonomic rank between genus and species, may be used (more specifically, between subsection and species). Species sometimes intergrade and there are places on the tree of life where adding hard range map boundaries is arbitrary and/or identification to species level is often not possible. Species complex should be used sparingly (only when necessary and helpful) and with the following criteria:

Species complex is monophyletic (i.e. sibling groups of species)
Complex is recognized in the literature
A named subgenus, section, or series does not already exist for the group
If a name is not established in the literature, use the earliest published species name for the name of the complex
Don't use compound names, such as Pantherophis alleghaniensis-spiloides, as there may be numerous species in the group

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/curator+guide#complexes

Also, if you vote "no, it's as good as it can be" in the Data Quality Assessment section, a genus-IDed observation will become Research Grade once there are 2 IDs

Posted by bouteloua about 4 years ago

I appreciate your checking into this matter :)

Posted by botanicaltreasures about 4 years ago

@bouteloua I edited my earlier comment to include another imprecise designation.
Also White Butterfly Parasite Wasp (Cotesia glomerata) needs to be turned into a complex. Fewer species are involved but still this designation is used to represent multiple lesser known species.

Posted by botanicaltreasures about 4 years ago

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