CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Errorsresulting from misidentified species can be a major issue for citizen science because manycryptic, or similar species, can be confused. Despite having expert- adjustedfilters to prevent errors, these filters fail to recognize the certainty ofreports of crypticspecies that are often frequent and sympatric. To test the uncertainty level ofsuchrecords, we compiled data from citizen science platforms of 5 cryptic speciesof the genera Serpophagaand Pseudocolopteryx. We categorized each record as certain or uncertainaccording to the documentation submitted, the observer?s experience, and the locationand date of the sighting. We performed two MaxEnt models for each species, thefirst including uncertain records, and the second model only with certain records, andthen we evaluated the variation observed between both models. The uncertaintywas higher in P. flaviventris (98.4%) and S. subcristata (53.4%),and lower in S.munda (23.6%) and P. citreola (1%). We did not find anymisidentified documented records forS.griseicapillaorP. citreola. The models that presented the greatest differencein their distribution areas were from P. flaviventris (31% difference),and S. subcristata (14%); themodels of P. citreola were almost identical. To reduce the degree ofuncertainty in reports of cryptic species, we suggest training regionalreviewers to detectuncertain records, increasing the accuracy of automated filters or creating particularprotocols after reporting a cryptic species, and encouraging observers to reportspecies with adequate evidence for identification.