HopperWiki uses a hybrid taxonomic strategy that draws on the foundational resources of the Orthoptera Species File (OSF). The OSF serves as the authoritative source of truth for all taxonomic concepts, classifications, and synonymies, as it is curated by experts and regularly updated based on primary literature and specimen-based revisions. This ensures that HopperWiki reflects the most current and scientifically rigorous taxonomy available for Orthoptera.

To enhance interoperability, HopperWiki also maps each OSF taxon to its corresponding GBIF taxon ID wherever possible. GBIF provides stable identifiers that are widely used across biodiversity platforms, enabling seamless integration with external occurrence data, trait repositories, and APIs. By storing both the OSF and GBIF identifiers, this hybrid approach combines expert-vetted taxonomy with practical connectivity, ensuring scientific accuracy while maintaining compatibility with global biodiversity data systems.

The challenge

One of the grand challenges of using scientific names in structured data in the digital age is that scientific names are both identifiers and interpretations at the same time. When we use a name on the wiki like Melanoplus devastator in a page title, a database, or in a paragraph, we are baking in that current interpretation of the concept of that taxon into the wiki which means that every future name change threatens the integrity of links, category trees, data queries, and user contributions.

Avoiding name collisions on wiki pages

Among the 40,000+ valid taxa of Orthoptera as determined by OSF there are many instances where two taxa have identical names. These are distinguished though additional metadata like taxon author, year, and Linnaean rank. However, adding these two wiki page names would create visual bloat. To this end, the following guiding principles help delineate the decision rules for how to create unique pages among these 40,000 taxa with the least amount of visual bloat titles.

Decision rules for formatting taxonomic page names

Suprageneric core ranks

These very rarely clash with anything else

Rank	Bare title rule	If conflict, then title receives…	Justification
Order	Always bare	Very unlikely; add (order) if forced	Highest-level rank; universally unique
Suborder	Always bare	Add (suborder) if forced	High-level, stable
Infraorder	Always bare	Add (infraorder) if forced	Rare; unique by name
Nanorder	Always bare	Add (nanorder) only if needed	Extremely rare; unique names

Family-group ranks

Family > Subfamily > Tribe > Subtribe > Infratribe > Supertribe > Supersubfamily

Rank	Bare title rule	If conflict, then title receives…	Justification
Superfamily	Bare unless collides with Family/Subfamily/Tribe	Add (superfamily)	High-level but less “canonical” than Family; Family outranks all
Family	Always bare	Others get qualifier	Most widely recognized level; taxonomic standard
Supersubfamily	Never bare if Subfamily exists	Use (supersubfamily)	Rare rank; subordinated to Subfamily
Subfamily	Bare unless Family uses same name	If Family → (subfamily)	Next-most canonical after Family
Supertribe	Bare only if Tribe/Subtribe/Infratribe absent	(supertribe) if collision	Rare; lower priority than Tribe/Subtribe
Tribe	Bare unless Family/Subfamily share name	(tribe) if needed	Common, important rank; higher priority than subtribe
Subtribe	Bare only if Tribe or Family not sharing name	(subtribe) if collision	Meaningful but less stable than Tribe
Infratribe	Bare only if no higher family-group rank shares name	(infratribe)	Lowest of family-group ranks; minimal priority

Genus-group ranks

Genus > Subgenus > Supergenus

Rank	Bare title rule	If conflict, then title receives…	Justification
Supergenus	Bare unless conflicts with Genus/Subgenus	(supergenus)	Rare rank; lower priority
Genus	Always bare	Subgenus/Supergenus get qualifiers	Canonical; same priority as Species at species-group levels
Subgenus	Bare unless = Genus name	(subgenus) or (subgenus in ParentGenus)	Type-subgenus problems are common; must disambiguate sometimes

Species-group ranks

Species > Superspecies > Supersuperspecies > Subsuperspecies > Subspecies

Rank	Bare title rule	If conflict, then title receives…	Justification
Supersuperspecies	Never bare	(supersuperspecies)	Extremely rare; not canonical
Superspecies	Bare only if no Species shares name	(superspecies)	Higher-than-species concepts should not take precedence
Subsuperspecies	Never bare	(subsuperspecies)	Even more derived than superspecies
Species	Always bare (binomial)	(species) only if true homonym in another lineage	Core taxonomic unit; highest priority in species-group
Subspecies	Bare as trinomial	(subspecies) only if ambiguous outside its binomial	Standard: trinomials never overwrite species pages

Handling taxonomic name changes that revert to existing pages

Purpose

This SOP describes how to manage changes to scientific names on HopperWiki when a species moves back to a previously used genus or name and the page already exists. This situation often arises due to taxonomic revisions, synonymization, or reversal of past reclassifications.

Background

On HopperWiki, each valid species is documented on its own page using the current accepted binomial name. Taxonomic decisions are based on trusted authorities such as Orthoptera Species File, GBIF, and primary taxonomic literature.

When a species moves to a different genus and then later returns to its original name, conflicts arise because:

Wikipedia and MediaWiki do not allow moving a page to a title that already exists, even if it’s just a redirect
the previous page name may contain relevant history or redirect behavior that must be preserved

Example case

Taxonomic change history:

species originally described as Gomphocerus sibiricus (Linnaeus, 1767)
at various times placed by some authors into other genera such as Chorthippus or Stauroderus, and pages or redirects may have been created under those names
later reinstated and widely accepted under Gomphocerus sibiricus by modern authorities such as Orthoptera Species File and GBIF

Now you want to merge or move content back to Gomphocerus sibiricus, but a page with that name already exists—either as a prior article or redirect.

Step-by-step workflow

A. Determine page status

check if the destination page (e.g., Melanoplus devastator) already exists
inspect whether it is:
- a redirect with no significant edit history
- a full article with prior content and revision history

B. If the old page is just a redirect

delete the redirect page (requires admin rights), or request deletion if not an admin
use the “Move” tab on the newer article (e.g., Melanoplus (Hesperotettix) devastator) to move it to the older, now-vacant title
the system will automatically create a redirect from the now-obsolete name back to the current one

Tip: add a note to the redirect page using:

#REDIRECT [[Melanoplus devastator]]
{{R from move}}
{{R from taxonomic synonym}}

C. If both pages have substantive content (i.e., merge required)

manually compare and merge the content into the correct/accepted name page (e.g., Melanoplus devastator)
preserve the best version of:
- taxobox
- description
- images
- references
- metadata templates (e.g., {{Taxonbar}})
use an edit summary like:

Merged content from Melanoplus (Hesperotettix) devastator due to reclassification back to Melanoplus devastator

on the Talk page of the destination, note:

== Merge note ==
Content from [[Melanoplus (Hesperotettix) devastator]] was merged here following taxonomic revision. See its page history for authorship attribution.

on the obsolete name page, replace content with a redirect:

#REDIRECT [[Melanoplus devastator]]

{{R from move}}
{{R from obsolete taxon name}}

Final checklist

reviewed both pages for content
determined redirect vs full article
deleted redirect (if applicable)
moved or manually merged content
created/updated redirect from obsolete name