On 30 April 2019, the Species Dictionary on the NBN Atlas was updated with the latest version of the UK Species Inventory (UKSI 20190425161941 Master Copy).
What has changed?
The main name changes and additions include:
- Hymenoptera brought up to date with Gavin Broad’s checklist (an addition of 3200 extra taxa) and all names with subgenus brackets have reverted to unbracketed standard binomial names
- All Coleoptera also received the subgenus removal treatment
- 1300+ JNCC/MBA Marine updates to the MSBIAS checklist
- Very many changes/updates to the British Mycological Society checklist (thanks to Richard Shotbolt)
- JNCC SOCC (Species of Conservation Concern) list updated
- Bat mites have been included for the first time
- 1000+ synonyms in various families rounded up and synonymised with their correct taxa
- approximately 260 requests for ad-hoc changes and copies of data
What’s next?
The next big changes for the UKSI in the coming year should be:
- Flowering plants to be brought into line with the BSBI checklist – a major update to the names
- Freshwater algae, long overdue major update to that taxonomy – though many ad-hoc updates have been done to algae & diatoms in the year 2018/19
Issues fixed on NBN Atlas
As part of the update there were several issues fixed on the NBN Atlas:
- The preferred English common name is now displayed as the primary name. This correction is on the species search and species pages, however the occurrence record is still displaying the first common name on the list, which may not be the preferred name. We are investigating this.
- Any name qualifier is now included in the scientific name.