Spider taxonomy curation

With iNaturalist now using a reference source to align spider taxonomy to, I've gradually been working to align the iNaturalist database with the contents of the World Spider Catalog. This work consists of:

• checking daily for updates logged at WSC and incorporating them
• reviewing the existing species already in the iNat database and validating their accuracy, making adjustments when needed
• working through the WSC database to add new species to the iNat database. I'm sort of half tacking this taxonomically, and half tackling it geographically.

• specialized national spider checklists are being built using the data at WSC. When a checklist is completed, it means all species listed as present in that nation at the WSC are now in the iNat database. So far checklists are done for:
  North America - Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti, Dominican Republic
  South America - Falkland Islands, South Georgia, St. Helena, Guyana, French Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil
  Africa - Egypt, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Angola, Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Equatoria Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Sao Tome, Cameroon, Gabon, Eritrea, Ghana, Liberia, DRC
  Asia - Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Japan(Okinawa, Ryukyus, mainland), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, UAE, Lebanon, Yemen, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan
  Oceania - New Caledonia, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Australia (Tasmania, Western Australia, Northern Territory, ACT, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland), Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga
  Europe - Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Czechia, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia (Novaya Zemlya, Northern European Russia, Western European Russia, Central European Russia, Eastern European Russia, Southern European Russia, Asian Russia)

• eventually links on all taxa pages to the relevant WSC page will be added as well as entry of all synonyms listed at WSC

Posted on 04 December, 2018 21:31 by cmcheatle