I would also recommend to keep the specificEpithet empty in such a case. The scientificName should contain the full string and taxonRank can indicate its a species - or a species group, aggregate or whatever you consider appropiate even if its a not fully standardized value. For identification uncertainty like cf or aff there is the term identificationQualifier, but for nov.sp. and similar notes I would think taxonRemarks is the best place.
best, Markus On 27.03.2012, at 19:30, Christopher Marshall wrote: > It seems to me there are at least two issues: > > (1) what to do with unranked (or awkwardly ranked), informally named, > taxonomic groups and > (2) whether to put a 'value' into the epithet field -- when the specimen is > not identified to the species level. > > > With regard to the second issue - I'd recommend leaving that field empty > (NULL)... in both of your examples, the specimen has not been associated with > an available species name. Using 'sp' only confuses things because 'sp' is > not an epithet. Is there any information content difference between > "Terellia (virens group)" and "Terellia sp. (virens group)". "n.sp" > similarly is not an epithet -- although it has 'some' information -- this is > something that could be put in a field not associated with nomenclature, but > with notes about the specimens (.e.g, that someone thinks it's an undescribed > speces). > > With regard to the first issue, I'm not sure how an informal rank would best > be dealt with. The species groups you mentioned are in some regards > "superspecies" and perhaps Article 6.2 of the ICZN is applicable (see below). > But I'm pretty certain that superspecies aren't a darwincore rank...or how > they'd be dealt with. > > -Chris > > 6.2. Names of aggregates of species or subspecies. A specific name may be > added in parentheses after the genus-group name, or be interpolated in > parentheses between the genus-group name and the specific name, to denote an > aggregate of species within a genus-group taxon; and a subspecific name may > be interpolated in parentheses between the specific and subspecific names to > denote an aggregate of subspecies within a species; such names, which must > always begin with a lower-case letter and be written in full, are not counted > in the number of words in a binomen or trinomen. The Principle of Priority > applies to such names [Art. 23.3.3]; for their availability see Article > 11.9.3.5. > > Recommendation 6B. Taxonomic meaning of interpolated names. An author who > wishes to denote an aggregate at either of the additional taxonomic levels > mentioned in Article 6.2 should place a term to indicate the taxonomic > meaning of the aggregate in the same parentheses as its interpolated > species-group name on the first occasion that the notation is used in any > work. > > Example. In the butterfly genus Ornithoptera Boisduval, 1832 the species O. > priamus (Linnaeus, 1758) is the earliest-named member of an aggregate of > vicarious species that includes also O. lydius Felder, 1865 and O. croesus > Wallace, 1865. The taxonomic meaning accorded to the O. priamus aggregate may > be expressed in the notation "Ornithoptera (superspecies priamus)", and the > members of the aggregate by the notations "O. (priamus) priamus (Linnaeus, > 1758)", "O. (priamus) lydius Felder, 1865", and "O. (priamus) croesus > Wallace, 1865". > > On Mar 27, 2012, at 12:58 AM, Peter Oboyski wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> Forgive me if this has been discussed already. I am trying to decide how to >> deal with species groups in our database. Here are some real life examples. >> >> Eg. Terellia sp. (virens group) >> >> option 1: >> Genus: Terellia >> SpecificEpithet: virens >> TaxonCertainty: species group >> >> option 2: >> Genus: Terellia >> SpecificEpithet: sp. (virens group) >> >> Eg. Oecetis new sp.? inconspicua group >> >> option 1: >> Genus: Oecetis >> SpecificEpithet: new sp. >> TaxonCertainty: "?" >> how do I incorporate the group? >> >> option 2: >> Genus: Oecetis >> SpecificEpithet: n.sp. (inconspicua group) >> TaxonCertainty: "?" >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> Peter T Oboyski >> University of California >> http://nature.berkeley.edu/~poboyski/ >> --------------------------------------------------- >> >> _______________________________________________ >> tdwg mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg > > Christopher Marshall > Curator & Collections Manager > Oregon State Arthropod Collection > Zoology - Oregon State University > Corvallis OR, 97331-2914 > [email protected] > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > tdwg mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg _______________________________________________ tdwg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg
