QGIS plugin
457 rows,
or 287 species?
We publish, free of charge, a QGIS plugin that lists the species in a naturalist layer without duplicates. It groups on the CD NOM — the TAXREF taxon identifier — rather than on the name as written, and that is the whole difference. Open code, free licence, nothing to install but QGIS.
The problem
The same species, written four ways
In a database filled in by several people over several years, the scientific name sometimes carries its author and date, and sometimes does not. Grouping by name then counts two species where there is only one.
Measured on a real field database: birds go from 457 rows to 287 species, bats from 108 to 35.
What it produces
Species
One row per species: scientific name, vernacular name, CD NOM, number of observations, and any extra columns you choose — protection statuses, for example.
To check
Every call made, every row set aside. This is not a technical log: it is the list of corrections to carry back into your own database.
The judgement calls
It decides, and it says so
A field database is never clean. The plugin decides, but it writes down every decision instead of burying it.
| What it encounters | What it does |
|---|---|
| A mistyped CD NOM splits a species | Attaches it to the majority code, and says so |
| A vernacular name differs on a few rows | Keeps the majority, flags the discrepancy |
| No scientific name on the row | Discards the row, and counts it |
| The layer has a biological group field | Lets you extract a single group |
| The layer has no such field | Does not ask the question |
What it refuses to conflate
Plecotus sp., Myotis blythii/Myotis myotis and “Gr. Sérotule” are not duplicates: they are incomplete determinations. They are kept, in a column of their own, and are not counted as species.
Install
- From QGIS — Plugins, Manage and Install Plugins, search for “Liste d’espèces”.
- From the repository — download the liste_especes folder, zip it, then Plugins, Install from ZIP.
- Then — the tool appears under Processing, Toolbox, in the “Liste d’espèces” group. It adds neither a menu nor a toolbar.
Works with QGIS 3.22 and QGIS 4, on Mac and on Windows.
Why it is free
This tool grew out of a need on our own projects: a database of several thousand observations from which an accurate, checkable species list had to be drawn. It was never meant to be sold, and it is useful to anyone working with French naturalist data.
It is published under the GPL: the code is readable, reusable and modifiable. If you find a fault in it, or a column is missing for your work, open an issue on the repository — that is how it will improve.
Our mapping services and our analysis engine are described elsewhere on this site.