How to get fish names downstream from family names using taxize

getfishnames.r

#  How to get fish names downstream from family names using taxize
## load libraries
install.packages(c("plyr","taxize"))
library(taxize); library(plyr)

## get taxonomic serial numbers from ITIS for these two fish families
tsns <- get_colid(c("Anostomidae","Curimatidae"))

## Use the function `downstream` to get all species (specified by the `downto` argument) in these two families
out <- downstream(tsns, downto="Species")

## Use ldply from plyr pkg to put the two data.frame's together in one data.frame
namesoutdf <- ldply(out)

## Take a peak
head(namesoutdf)

     tsn parentName parentTsn                taxonName rankId rankName
1 163155   Chilodus    163154       Chilodus punctatus    220  Species
2 163162  Leporinus    163161      Leporinus fasciatus    220  Species
3 163172  Leporinus    163161 Leporinus nigrotaeniatus    220  Species
4 163176  Leporinus    163161       Leporinus striatus    220  Species
5 163179  Abramites    163178   Abramites hypselonotus    220  Species
6 163185  Anostomus    163184      Anostomus anostomus    220  Species