I have a couple of butterfly records to verify where the species is listed as 'Pieris' (i.e. the whites) but the Common Name field is blank. So I don't know which of the white butterflies (large? small?) the record is referring to. Do I need to go back to the recorder and ask for more information?
Thanks
Judy
Given that Small and Green-veined White are difficult to separate in flight, I would assume that anyone recording Pieris is basically recording a white butterfly that has not been identified to species. Whilst obviously this isn't as useful as data that is recorded to species level, it could still be handy for certain analysis, for example if someone is carrying out a transect and you would want to know how many individual butterflies were seen to compare against previous months/years.
If you are verifying on behalf of Butterfly Conservation you might want to speak to someone or check any written guidance about how to verify genus-only records. Personally (I'm a verifier for a different group of organisms) I am happy to accept genus-only IDs where a species-level ID isn't possible, but I recall a conversation a while back with someone verifying for BC who said that only species were imported into their datbase so they had to use the 'rejected as unable to verify' option. A look at how other verifiers treat records for Pieris show a complete mixture of approaches, from considered correct, plausible, not verified yet and rejected!