Add Taxon Name and Id Number

Click on the question of choice to jump down the page.

• Who can add taxon names?

• What types of names can be added to Morphbank?

• What is the effect of adding temporary taxon names?

• What if the newly added taxon name needs changing?

• At what rank can new taxon names be added?

• When, where and how can taxon names be added?

• Where to Find Taxon Name Search

• What are the fields in the Add Taxon Name screen?

Who can add taxon names?

To add a new taxon name at a particular place in the tree the user (Contributor or Submitter) must have a privilege TSN that includes that taxonomic level. For example, if the privilege TSN is 152741 (Order of Hymenoptera), users have the privilege to add temporary TSNs to all wasps, bees, ants, and saw flies.

This model is under revision. Soon any logged-in Morphbank user will be able to add taxon names at any rank.

What types of names can be added to Morphbank?

Contributors may submit taxon names of two types: Regular scientific names or manuscript names.

Also, a contributor must choose the status of the new name: "publish" or "do not publish." Both types of new taxon names are given Morphbank Temporary Taxonomic Serial Numbers (TSNs) which can be identified because they have a TSN number greater than 999,000,000. These are unique identifiers for a given taxon name.

What is the effect of adding temporary taxon names?

Published Regular scientific names and published Manuscript names are available to scientists to use for adding specimens, establishment of user and group privileges, and determination annotations.

In addition, Published Regular scientific names will be submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture, Integrated Taxonomic Information System Office (ITIS) for review, assignment of a ITIS taxonomic serial number (TSN) and inclusion into the ITIS database. This ITIS TSN will replace the Morphbank temporary tsn in the Morphbank system. Manuscript names are not submitted to ITIS.

What if the newly added taxon name needs changing?

What follows is a brief entry on how to Edit a taxon name. For a more detailed entry on how to Edit a taxon name, jump to Edit Taxon Name.

• If the Contributor/Submitter chooses do not publish, the new taxon names are viewable/usable only by them and unpublished names may be edited.
• Published Regular scientific names may be changed only if 1) they are not used by any other scientist AND 2) are not yet under review by ITIS. Note well: ITIS reviews names at will.
• A user may Edit their contributed taxon names by:
  1. First, selecting the Group the user wants to be associated with these names.
     Select the Group from the Header Menu > Tools > Group > groups list or hover over Group at top left of Header to choose Group from a list.
  2. Going to Header Menu > Tools > My Manager > Taxa tab
  3. In the Keywords field, enter the name (or at least part of the name) to be edited.
  4. If there are many hits, use Limit by in the left sidebar. Click Contributor, then . The new search results will be limited to names the logged-in user has uploaded to Morphbank.
  5. Find the name of interest. Click the edit icon to open the Edit Taxon Name screen.
  6. Correct the fields that need updating, click .

At what rank can new taxon names be added?

• Via the web interface, new taxon names can be added at the suborder rank or below at this time. The system is designed to only allow names to be added at one level at a time and only to a level that is appropriate. For example, if adding a new name starting at the family rank, you can only add subfamily, tribe, subtribe or genus. All subordinate taxonomic names, if needed, are added one at a time.
• If many names need to be added, the current Excel workbook - Data Entry worksheet v 2.5.5 can be used to add taxon names from sub-genus and below.
• Morphbank developers have introduced a new flat-file spreadsheet for adding taxon names along with the associated metadata (taxon author, name source, external link and external id for a name). Using this method, names can be added at any taxonomic rank. Contact mbadmin at scs dot fsu dot edu if this fits your user case scenario.

When, where and how can taxon names be added?

• Taxon Names can be added one-at-a-time, anytime, via the

  Taxon Name Search

  (see next screen shot).

The button is visible on screen for any authorized logged-in Morphbank user anytime they are searching for a taxon name and they have reached at least the family level in the Taxon Name Search.

• Select the Group desired, before adding a Taxon Name. You will need to be in this group to edit the name, should it need editing.
• From the Taxon Name Search, enter the taxon name for the rank just above the rank of the taxon name to be added and click Search.
• Once there, click on the Add New Taxon button (bottom right). See the example below for how this works.
• Go to the My Manager > Taxa tab to see how a name looks once it's entered.
• There are several different Excel spreadsheets available for adding names. A user populates them with the taxon names that need to go into Morphbank. A curator at Morphbank uploads the names. One of these spreadsheets is available (downloadable) via the web at Excel workbook - Data Entry worksheet v 2.5.5 or contact mbadmin at scs dot fsu dot edu for 2 more options.

In this example, the user clicked on the link to the Adephaga Suborder and then clicked on to open the following Add Taxon Name screen.

Fill out the

Add Taxon Name

 fields:

• Type of Name: (Required) For now, a user may select Regular scientific name or manuscript name from the drop-down.
  Warning: there are some stringent guidelines regarding when the names become public and whether or not they can be edited/deleted. See Name Status field below.
• Taxon Name: (Required) In the example above, the user clicked on the Adephaga Suborder and then clikced on "Add new taxon." Now a Family name may be added below this Suborder.
• Rank Identification: (Required) Use the drop-down to indicate the rank of the name entered in the Taxon Name field (this example has family). If the user then needs to add another taxon name at the next lower rank, they'll repeat this form at that rank.
• Name Source: Enter the name of the organization that holds the publication data for the name and/or is responsible for contributing the name to the Morphbank database. Examples of values this field might contain include: uBio, TROPICOS, IPNI, APNI, or a group like SBMNH, AMNH, World Spider Catalog, etc.
• Publication Id / Name: (Required by ITIS) If the publication data is already in Morphbank or needs to be added to Morphbank, click the to open a Publication window. The user can a publication already there, or click "Add New" to add a Publication. The Publication Id will then auto-fill as well as the Taxon Author field.
  
  If the user knows the Morphbank Publication Id, they may enter it and the Taxon Author field will not auto-fill.
  
  
• Taxon Author(s), Year: (Required by ITIS) Enter the Taxon Author or Authors followed by the year (unless auto-filled).
• Page(s): Indicate the appropriate page number(s) where the Taxon Name appears in the Publication.
• Contributor: If you are the Submitter, be sure to choose the Contributor from this drop-down.
• Name status: Choose Publish now or Do not publish now. If Publish now is selected, any scientist will be able to use the new Taxon Name. With Do not publish, the name is editable and cannot be seen or used by Morphbank users other than the Contributor or Submitter of this Taxon. Published Regular scientific names may only be changed if two conditions are met: 1) not yet submitted to ITIS and 2) not used by any other Morphbank members. Published Manuscript names can ONLY be changed by contacting mbadmin at scs dot fsu dot edu
• Vernacular: Associated with the Taxon Name, a common name may be added here, in the language of choice. If a language needs to be added, contact mbadmin at scs dot fsu dot edu

After completion of the form, click to add the New Taxon Name with its temporary TSN.

For a given contributor, submitted names will be usable in the Morphbank system immediately from Taxon Name Search. If published, it will take 24 hours before the name appears in the Taxon Hierarchy. Logged-in Users may use the new (beta-version) My Manager Taxa interface to work with the Taxon Names they have contributed to Morphbank. For more information on this, jump to the My Manager section of this manual or go to the Header Menu > Tools > My Manager > Taxa tab.

Note well: For inclusion in ITIS, all the Morphbank Required fields (red asterisk) and the ITIS required fields (blue asterisk) must be complete. ITIS checks at will for new names needing review. Names may be given an ITIS TSN at any time. After an ITIS TSN is assigned, the name cannot be changed.

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