I am trying to merge a species with associated records (“Luzula frigida”) to a subspecies (“Luzula multiflora frigida”), but I’m prevented by the system. Is it not possible to merge taxa of different rank and what to do then?
Hi @fedoras,
You cannot merge a node with a node at a lower rank in the tree (with or without children) using the tree editor directly.
In situations where you would like to accomplish this action, you can edit the taxon form for the first record directly and change the parent to the parent of the node you wish to merge it with.
Once you select the correct parent using the query combo box, you can change the rank to the same rank as the record you wish to merge this record into. Now in the tree interface you should be able to merge the two nodes.
Thank you. I did try this, but whenever I search for the parent taxon “Luzula multiflora” it only hands me the genus:
If this is because the rank of the taxon is species, then I have the additional problem not being able to change the rank of this taxon from species to subspecies:
Then what do I do?
Does your tree structure have Species as “Enforced” in the Taxon Tree Definition? That would explain why you must have a Species as a parent before it can be a Subspecies.
It looks like the parent needs to be “Luzula multiflora” as that is the species that it needs to be a child of to perform the merge.
Hmm… I’m not sure where to find these settings in Specify7, but in Specify6 it indeed appeared that Species was enforced, so I changed this accordingly:
I restarted the Specify7 server and tried again, and then I could change the rank to subspecies, after which I could move the branch in the tree. I could, however, not change the parent taxon during taxon editing, because it still only served me the genus and not the species.
Hi @fedoras,
Did you try to use the Query Builder option rather than the standard form search to find “Luzula multiflora”?
This allows you to access the full query builder system in a dialog which can help narrow down the correct parent. If it comes down to it, you can even query the specific ID of the parent record you wish to associate it with.
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I had no idea… Thanks!