Template:Speciesbox

Acacia aemula
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Acacia
Species:
A. aemula
Binomial name
Acacia aemula
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Documentation for the automated taxobox system

Taxonomy templates

Taxobox templates

This template is used to display a taxobox for a species whose parent's taxonomy is stored in the taxonomy templates of the automated taxobox system. A requirement is that the name of the species is displayed as a simple binomial (i.e. in the form Genus species). In a few special cases, the name of the species is displayed differently (as for example at Halictus? savenyei), when Template:Automatic taxobox is used.

Using this template effectively requires some familiarity with the automated taxobox system; see the introduction to the system.

The Speciesbox template does not require or make use of a taxonomy template for the species; it only uses the taxonomy template for the parent taxon, normally the genus.

Usage

Usage is basically the same as Template:Automatic taxobox (with one slight variation noted below).

There are five main cases to consider in using this template:

Simple cases

If the article is about a species whose binomial and genus name are both straightforward (e.g. no rank between the species and its genus, no hybrid symbol, no parenthesized disambiguation in the genus name), then the minimum requirement is to specify the taxon parameter:[note 1]

  • |taxon=name of the species without any formatting (e.g. Quercus major, Lobatus gigas)
(Alternatively you can use the genus and species parameters separately – this is different from {{Automatic taxobox}}:
  • |genus=name of the genus without any formatting (e.g. Quercus, Lobatus)
  • |species=specific epithet or name without any formatting (e.g. major, gigas)
This slightly reduces the processing needed.)

If necessary, you can also use:

  • |subgenus=link to subgenus – deprecated, use |parent=see below
  • |extinct=yes if the species (but not the genus) is extinct (if the genus is extinct, this should be marked in its taxonomy template, so will be picked up automatically); true is also accepted.

It's not necessary to include {{italic title}} in the article; this will be added automatically by the Speciesbox template if needed.

For more complicated cases, see the other sections below.

Simple examples

  • Page at the binomial name; displayed taxobox to have the binomial name as its title, e.g. Lobatus gigas.
{{Speciesbox
| taxon = Lobatus gigas
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758) --optional; this is the binomial authority
... --other optional parameters, e.g. for an image
}}
  • Page at the binomial name; displayed taxobox to have the common name as its title, e.g. Allium moly.
{{Speciesbox
| name = Golden garlic --required if title of taxobox ≠ taxon name
| taxon = Allium moly
| authority = L. --optional; this is the binomial authority
... --other optional parameters, e.g. for an image
}}
  • Page at the common name; displayed taxobox to have the same common name as its title, e.g. Garlic chives.
{{Speciesbox
| name = Garlic chives --optional
| taxon = Allium tuberosum --essential
... --other optional parameters, e.g. for an image
}}

Hybrid species

Care is needed to obtain the correct italicization of hybrid species names in the displayed taxobox since the hybrid sign, ×, should not be italicized, whereas the rest of the binomial should be. The example below shows one way of achieving the desired effect. Assume that the name of the article is "Polygonatum × hybridum", which should display as the title "Polygonatum × hybridum".

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Polygonatum'' × ''hybridum''}}
{{Speciesbox
| taxon = Polygonatum {{hybrid}} hybridum
| ...
}}

Notes:

  • Use {{hybrid}} rather than the × character in the value of the taxon parameter; this ensures that it will not be italicized in the displayed taxobox.
  • In the article body, you can either use ''Polygonatum'' × ''hybridum'' or ''Polygonatum {{hybrid}} hybridum'' to obtain the correct italicization.

Genus names duplicated across kingdoms

A special case is where the name of the genus is duplicated in different kingdoms, e.g. Acanthocarpus, which is used for a plant and a crab. The taxonomy template for the plant has to be at Template:Taxonomy/Acanthocarpus (plant) to allow there to be a separate page at "Template:Taxonomy/Acanthocarpus (crab)". Consider the page Acanthocarpus preissii. The taxobox has to be set up in this way:

{{Speciesbox
| genus = Acanthocarpus (plant)
| species = preissii
| ...
}}

The corresponding taxonomy template for the genus, Template:Taxonomy/Acanthocarpus (plant), contains the line:

| link = Acanthocarpus (plant)|Acanthocarpus

to ensure that wikilinks are to "Acanthocarpus (plant)" whereas the displayed genus name is "Acanthocarpus".

Note that this approach is only necessary when the disambiguation is needed because genus names are duplicated across kingdoms.

Monospecific genera

Another special case is where the article is about a genus with only one species. The article will be at the genus name, but the final taxon to be displayed in the taxobox should be the species. An example is Aphyllanthes, with the sole species Aphyllanthes monspeliensis.

{{Speciesbox
|taxon = Aphyllanthes monspeliensis
|parent_authority = L. --authority for genus
|authority = L. --authority for binomial (i.e. the species)
|... --other optional parameters
}}

The use of the Speciesbox template with the taxon parameter set to the species name ensures that the taxobox ends with the binomial name even though the page title is the genus name. The mediawiki software automatically replaces the generated wikilink [[Aphyllanthes]] by bold text since it goes to the same page. In this case we want to display the authority for both the species and the genus, since there is no other article. The parameters parent_authority, grandparent_authority, etc. are the way to display authorities up the classification hierarchy.

Parent taxon is not the genus

By default, the Speciesbox template uses the genus name as the name of the parent taxon. If this is not the case, because the parent taxon is at a rank between the species and its genus, such as subgenus or botanical section, then use:

  • |parent=parent_taxon

"Template:Taxonomy/parent_taxon" must then exist. Conventions for the name of a taxonomy template at a rank between species and genus include:

Thus if a zoological subgenus is to be shown, then the taxobox is set up in this way:

{{Speciesbox
| name = House mouse
| parent = Mus (Mus)
| taxon = Mus musculus
| ...
}}

Italicizing the article title

The template can normally determine whether the page title matches the species or the genus in the taxobox, and if so outputs {{italic title}}, so usually it is not necessary to add this template. In a very few cases the automatic italicization will be wrong (e.g. if the article is at the English name and this is the same as the genus name). Automatic italicization can be over-ridden by setting |italic_title=no.

Requirement for correct display

The template will generate a taxobox which will display correctly only if the taxonomy for the genus (or |parent=) has already been created (i.e. "Template:Taxonomy/genusname" or "Template:Taxonomy/parent" already exists). If it does not, you will be asked to create it. One way is to look for the "fix" link and open it.

See also

Notes

  1. If the taxon or genus/species parameters are omitted, the template will try to use the page title as the taxon name. This is deprecated, since it is not self-documenting, so is confusing to editors not familiar with the template, and causes problems if the page is moved.

Template Data

This is the TemplateData documentation for the template used by the new VisualEditor.

Speciesbox

<templatedata> { "params": { "taxon": { "type": "string", "suggested": true }, "authority": { "type": "string", "suggested": true }, "genus": { "type": "string" }, "species": { "type": "string" }, "subgenus": { "type": "string" }, "parent": { "type": "string" }, "extinct": { "type": "string" }, "name": { "type": "string" }, "parent_authority": { "type": "string" }, "image": { "type": "wiki-file-name", "suggested": true }, "image_caption": { "type": "string" }, "status": { "type": "string" }, "status_system": { "type": "string" }, "status_ref": { "type": "string" }, "fossil_range": { "type": "string" }, "image_width": { "deprecated": "Use image_upright", "type": "string" }, "synonyms_ref": { "type": "string" }, "synonyms": { "type": "string" }, "display_parents": { "type": "string" }, "range_map": { "type": "wiki-file-name" }, "image2": { "type": "wiki-file-name" }, "range_map_caption": { "type": "string" }, "image2_caption": {}, "subdivision_ranks": { "type": "string" }, "subdivision": { "type": "string" }, "status2": { "type": "string" }, "status2_ref": { "type": "string" }, "status2_system": {}, "image_upright": { "type": "number" }, "grandparent_authority": { "type": "string" }, "image_alt": { "type": "string" }, "range_map_upright": { "type": "number" }, "range_map_alt": { "type": "string" }, "greatgrandparent_authority": { "type": "string" }, "range_map_width": { "type": "string", "deprecated": "Use range_map_upright" }, "range_map2": { "type": "wiki-file-name" }, "range_map2_caption": { "type": "string" }, "range_map2_alt": { "type": "string" }, "range_map2_width": { "type": "string", "deprecated": "Use range_map2_upright" }, "range_map2_upright": { "type": "number" }, "image2_alt": { "type": "string" }, "image2_upright": { "type": "number" }, "image2_width": { "type": "string", "deprecated": "Use image2_upright" }, "classification_status": { "type": "string" }, "color_as": { "type": "string" }, }, "description": "An infobox for species of organisms where {{Automatic taxobox}} is used at the genus and higher ranks", "paramOrder": [ "color_as", "name", "taxon", "authority", "parent", "fossil_range", "image", "image_width", "image_upright", "image_alt", "image_caption", "image2", "image2_width", "image2_upright", "image2_alt", "image2_caption", "status", "status_system", "status_ref", "status2", "status2_system", "status2_ref", "extinct", "classification_status", "greatgrandparent_authority", "grandparent_authority", "parent_authority", "display_parents", "genus", "subgenus", "species", "subdivision_ranks", "subdivision", "range_map", "range_map_width", "range_map_upright", "range_map_alt", "range_map_caption", "range_map2", "range_map2_width", "range_map2_upright", "range_map2_alt", "range_map2_caption", "synonyms", "synonyms_ref" ] } </templatedata>