I have just imported a batch of moth records and this has resulted in a number of notifications of NBN record cleaner 'flags' stating the record is 'outside the known flight period'. This is not surprising as the records are of larvae and pupae! I am aware that the flag notifications are not rejections and serve just to highlight potential issues to verifiers but it seems surprising that the software apparently does not take into account the life stage recorded in the triggers for a flag. I am sure that verifiers are extremely diligent in reviewing records carefully but they are human and therefore can make mistakes and an inappropriate flag could potentially cause a record to be rejected erroneously.
Comments
RE: Record Cleaner flag issues
I have received dozens of 'outside the known flight period' notifications for larvae/pupae, but none have ever been rejected for this reason by a verifier. If there was evidence that this happened on a regular basis, I suppose the admins might consider fixing it. Otherwise, given the very limited funds available, it's perhaps unlikely this would ever be considered a high priority (even though it might be 'nice to have').
As for 'out of range' notifications - my assumption was that these get triggered if there are currently no other records within a given grid-square. So the record might be right in the middle of a species' known range, but if a specific grid-square is currently blank within the iRecord database, that would still be considered 'out of range'. I have always treated such notifications as offering me some encouragement as a recorder, since they may represent a 'first' for a small area of the map.
I've had that with the flight seasons too. I am also constantly aggravated by spurious flags for records being outside the known geographical range of a species when this is patently not the case. I have just recorded a Speckled Bush-cricket from Peterborough & it has been flagged. I have also recorded a Cepero's Groundhopper frm the same place & it has not been flagged. Ridiculous. In 1965 Ragge showed the distribution of Speckled Bush-cricket as far north as Yorkshire! Cambridgeshire is very much within the range and must have been since recording began. The Cambridgeshire popuations of Cepero's are known, but are very much outliers, range being otherwise restricted to the south coats of England & Wales. And yet not a squeak from Record Cleaner. I have countless other examples of species being flagged nonsensically. The upshot is that I simply ignore Record Cleaner notifications as being of no value whatsoever. I do note that any attempt to raise this issue is also ignored though, so I suppose this post will be unanswered, as was the OP.