Right, but that's only one of two types of "identified as Perciformes" circumstances. The other is, "there are many different species represented, but all fall within my taxon concept circumscription for Perciformes".

So the key question becomes: is your use of the word "species" in "Order Perciformes species undetermined" necessarily singular, or might it also be plural?

Aloha,

Rich

From: tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Peter DeVries
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 7:08 PM
To: tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org
Subject: [tdwg-content] An individual identified to a higher group like Order, is still an instance of a species - just a species that is currently unspecified

What I would recommend is that you treat a specimen that is identified to an order (Perciformes) with something like the following.

Species => Order Perciformes species undetermined.

The individual is still an instance of a species, however that species has yet to be determined.

What would work best is to have some standard way of writing the green string above.

This would allow the occurrences that are of individuals identified only to the Order Perciformes, to be interpreted as a species that falls somewhere within the Order Perciformes.

- Pete

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Pete DeVries
Department of Entomology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
445 Russell Laboratories
1630 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
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