Template talk:Subspeciesbox

Not suitable for botanical articles

This template does not seem suitable for botanical articles, since it produces a "trinomial" as used in the Zoological Code, and does not show the rank (i.e. "subsp.") as required in the Botanical Code. It might be possible to fix this and allow wider use (e.g. with varieties and forms, both of which can be found in plant taxoboxes) by having a parameter which specified whether or not an abbreviation like "subsp.", "var." or "f." was shown. At present I've not been able to use the template with plants. Peter coxhead (talk) 10:22, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

{{Infraspeciesbox}} now handles botanical names below species level. Peter coxhead (talk) 10:24, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Extinction

The template doesn't handle extinction correctly. If the genus is marked as extinct in its taxonomy template, then the species and subspecies are marked as extinct, as they should be. But there was no way of showing that the subspecies alone is exinct, or that the species (and hence the subspecies) is extinct but not the genus. I'm working on correcting this. Peter coxhead (talk) 21:32, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Supplying |extinct=yes (or |extinct=true) will now place a † in the correct place for an extinct subspecies, whose genus is not extinct. No fix yet for an extinct species whose genus is not extinct. Peter coxhead (talk) 11:05, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

subspecies status

I've been looking at the pages on Felidae species and subspecies and noted that there is considerable flux in the recognised subspecies. There are articles on subspecies that are no longer recognised, but no way of indicating this in the subspecies box. How about a subspecies status parameter that could either flag current or historical status (similar to the extinct parameter) or add a brief note? Jts1882 (talk) 16:51, 17 June 2017 (UTC)

If reliable sources no longer recognize the subspecies, then there shouldn't be an article. If it's a historically recognized subspecies, then we normally don't have a taxobox. Peter coxhead (talk) 18:43, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

Name parameter with unspecified value behaves differently from absent name parameter

@Peter coxhead and Jts1882: I just noticed at orange-bellied trogon that when |name= isn't present, the top of the infobox shows the scientific name. When |name= is present, but no value is specified, the page title is shown. That's weird and un-intuitive; I wouldn't expect a parameter with no value to have any effect at all (and in the past I've probably removed several blank name parameters from subspeciesbox without noticing what that did). It's the opposite of the logic in Speciesbox/Automatic taxobox, where the article title is displayed by default unless overrriden by |name=. (I think at this point {{Infraspeciesbox}} behaves the same with respect to |name= as Speciesbox/Automatic taxobox in spite of the complication of italics with connecting terms) Plantdrew (talk) 02:53, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Code for {{subspeciesbox}}:

| name = <!--
-->{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAMEBASE}}|{{first word|{{{genus}}}}} {{{species}}} {{{subspecies}}}|{{Italic title}}<!--
-->}}<!--end of #ifeq: statement; now generate the actual value of the name parameter
-->{{{name|''{{first word|{{{genus|<noinclude>Panthera</noinclude>}}}}} {{{species|<noinclude>tigris</noinclude>}}} {{{subspecies|<noinclude>tigris</noinclude>}}}''}}}

If |name= isn't set it passes the trinomial as |name= to {{taxobox/core}}, which overrides the {{taxobox/core}} use of PAGENAME:

{{#if:{{{name|}}}|{{{name}}}|{{PAGENAME}} }}

So {{subspeciesbox}} needs to handle PAGENAME in the passed |name= if it is to override the trinomial. But if it does it then needs to handle potential disambiguators with all that entails. This way the taxobox always sets the name. —  Jts1882 | talk  08:31, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I'm rather occupied at present with trying to update a long checklist of Diptera species for a local nature reserve, so I haven't been around Wikipedia much.

It's clear that {{Subspeciesbox}} hasn't been updated as recently as {{Infraspeciesbox}}. Looking at it quickly, the problem seems to arise from using {{{name|...}}} rather than {{#if:{{{name}}}|...}} to test for a value of name, so it should be easy to fix. If no-one else does, I'll look at it as soon as I can. Peter coxhead (talk) 13:51, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

If I understand correctly, I've made your suggested change in {{Subspeciesbox/sandbox}}. An empty |name= parameter in orange-bellied trogon now makes no difference, showing the trinomial both when |name= is absent or empty. —  Jts1882 | talk  15:16, 12 December 2020 (UTC)

Change to handling of default taxobox name

There was an inconsistency in how {{Speciesbox}} and {{Subspeciesbox}} set the name of the taxobox by default (i.e. when |name= was absent). I've revised {{Subspeciesbox}} to follow {{Speciesbox}}, i.e. to use the page name as the default (previously it used the trinomial). This means that at Dingo, for example, it's no longer necessary to put |name=Dingo. Most articles using {{Subspeciesbox}} will not have changed taxoboxes, because editors have usually specified the name parameter when the article is not at the scientific name. This is now redundant, but does no harm. Peter coxhead (talk) 09:28, 23 January 2022 (UTC)

Add third status parameter in line with Template:Speciesbox

I'd like to propose the addition of a third status parameter (with the third status image suppressed to reduce clutter) to this template, as discussed and implemented at the speciesbox talk page, for use on the articles of subspecies which have multiple relevant statuses, eg. IUCN, NatureServe, and CITES statuses for Achatinella bulimoides elegans. For an example of how this looks with the current speciesbox configuration, see Achatinella bulimoides. This situation of multiple relevant statuses is not uncommon for subspecies, with many of the subspecies notable enough for an article having been assessed by the IUCN, one or more regional conservation organisations or pieces of legislation (NatureServe, Endangered Species Act, Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada etc), and to be included on a CITES Appendix, so I think this template would benefit from adopting the change. Cheers, Ethmostigmus 🌿 (talk | contribs) 07:13, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

 Done  —  Jts1882 | talk  13:36, 30 April 2026 (UTC)