Flag for Taxon: American Octopus (Octopus americanus)
| Flagger | Content Author | Content | Reason | Flag Created | Resolved by | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| coralreefdreams | American Octopus (Octopus americanus) |
taxon split from Octopus vulgaris |
Jan. 15, 2023 17:12:52 +0000 | thomaseverest |
Split done |
Comments
@coralreefdreams Thanks for bringing this up. I'm not familiar with this group, but it looks like a split is warranted. I've added a taxon split draft according to figure 8 in the above reference:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxon_changes/120287
There's a few things that need to be sorted out before committing:
I included the observations from South Africa and adjacent regions with O. vulgaris, even though it looks like they are something different. When they are sorted out we can do another split, or we can do something with them now.
There are a decent number of O. insularis observations in the Caribbean, even though that isn't in the paper. Should I remove all those places? Are they actually O. americanus? If so we'll need to split O. insularis as well.
Just wanted to confirm O. americanus is still present where O. insularis, O. maya, and O. taganga are along the coast (i.e. the ranges overlap even though the colors don't).
Currently, observations of O. vulgaris from these places will be moved as follows:
-Atlantic America and Brazil to O. americanus
-Caribbean to genus because O. insularis overlaps with O. americanus, O. maya, and O. taganga (see above though, some could go to O. americanus).
-South Korea to O. sinensis.
-Australia and New Caledonia to O. tetricus.
-These observations from Europe and South Africa will be bumped to genus and need to be reIDed because they are offshore and fall outside of the bounds of the atlas.
These will also be bumped to genus because they fall outside of the boundaries in the paper. They could be misIDs, or they could be range extensions.
-Baja California
-Tanzania (near O. vulgaris type III)
-Sao Tomé-et-Principe
-India
-Indonesia
the Australian records were all misidentifications, and not all of them = O. tetricus, so that would have been a non-ideal swap, so I just went through and corrected those manually
@thomaseverest Thank you for looking into this. Yes, there are three separate species that are affected in the Atlantic, O. vulgaris, O. americanus and O. insularis. I am not sure about the species outside of the Atlantic and Caribbean, I have not read the paper in depth, only the abstract. There is an additional paper you might want to take a look at that extends the range of O. insularis into Florida: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355858665.
@thomaseverest One more thing, O. insularis and O. americanus are easily distinguishable as separate species and should not be bumped to Genus level. O. insularis has a very distinct red and white netted (reticulated) pattern along the arms. Take a look at the species photos and you will see what I mean. Also, the second paper I sent you a link to should clarify that. I personally have observations of both species in Bonaire and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands (there are more, I have not put them all on iNaturalist yet).
Octopus insularis: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/coralreefdreams?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=octopus+insularis
Octopus americanus: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/coralreefdreams?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=octopus+americanus
@coralreefdreams Great, thanks! I'll leave the O. insularis as is, then, with autopopulated places throughout the Caribbean. However, this means that these observations of O. vulgaris will all be bumped to genus because the atlases of O. americanus and O. insularis overlap. If they are easy to ID, then that is great and there will be no disagreements to override when someone reIDs them. Current observations of O. americanus and O. insularis will remain as such because those taxa aren't being split, just O. vulgaris (which are presumably incorrect).
Tagging some other IDers for confirmation.
@saber_animal @rober_g2 @alanhorstmann @cccrll @pierrenoel @dennisthediver @francoisroche @bobby23 @deneb16 @pleahy @predomalpha @martyhing @invertebratist @jimbobo @sascha_schulz @fiestykakapo
@thomaseverest Perfect! I went through and suggested changes to some of the O. vulgaris IDs in Florida today.
This looks perfect to me. Thank you @thomaseverest and all the others for working on this.
Just for information, it seems more complicated than expected as the following Octopus species seems also recorded from the Western Atlantic viz French Antillas and or Guyana : Octopus briareus Robson, 1929 (https://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/cd_nom/460473), Octopus hummelincki Adam, 1936 (https://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/cd_nom/828802) and Octopus joubini Robson, 1929 (https://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/cd_nom/460477).
@pierrenoel Are those species part of the O. vulgaris species complex? This split is only for observations that are now misIDed as O. vulgaris.
@pierrenoel the proposed split is confined to O. vulgaris and O. americanus, Western vs. Eastern Atlantic based on this paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343224735
OK. I apologize. Thanks.
Shouldn't Octopus americanus be split from Octopus vulgaris as the Western Atlantic species?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343224735