[leps-talk] RE: What's in a name: Red-spotted Purple/White Admiral and their kin

[Ron Gatrelle]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Barb Beck" <barb at birdnut.obtuse.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 9:32 PM
Subject: [leps-talk] RE: What's in a name: Red-spotted Purple/White Admiral
and their kin


> Michael,
>
> The bottom line is that the NABA list does not work for amateurs in this
> part of the country.  Because they lump many of our species and do not
> recognize subspecies in their database they lost lot of our data.  Lumped
> data where species overlap cannot be retrieved.

snips

> Barb Beck
> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
>


Isn't it interesting (and revealing) that when TILS comes to an
_uncertainty_ of species/subspecies relationships that our response is to
_include_ every single taxon and its name in the SC-NABN list and just put
a ? (= unknown or unsure) about the relationship.   While at naba, the way
they handle the exact same situation is they list only a broad relationship
and then put a ? or fully _exclude_ the unsure of relationship taxon.  (Of
course, this broad "lumping" is still relationally inaccurate plus it voids
information and knowledge.)

In our system one can "know" an entity exists and what its individual
scientific AND common name is  -  this is like a cafeteria mega food items
supply, one has options as to what to take or leave.   With the naba system
many taxa are never presented so they are not "known" (they are lost).
This is like a cold Army field ration - this is all you get, take it or
leave it.

Ron




 
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