diff --git a/app/models/taxon.rb b/app/models/taxon.rb
index 4aa673ba383..bf12aaeca24 100644
--- a/app/models/taxon.rb
+++ b/app/models/taxon.rb
@@ -69,7 +69,8 @@ class Taxon < ActiveRecord::Base
                                       "taxon's parent"
   validates_uniqueness_of :source_identifier,
                           :scope => [:source_id],
-                          :message => "already exists"
+                          :message => "already exists",
+                          :allow_blank => true
   
   NAME_PROVIDER_TITLES = {
     'ColNameProvider' => 'Catalogue of Life',
diff --git a/app/models/taxon_name.rb b/app/models/taxon_name.rb
index 4f941e8c3f3..eb1fb4c690e 100644
--- a/app/models/taxon_name.rb
+++ b/app/models/taxon_name.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ class TaxonName < ActiveRecord::Base
                           :case_sensitive => false
   validates_uniqueness_of :source_identifier,
                           :scope => [:source_id],
-                          :message => "already exists"
+                          :message => "already exists",
+                          :allow_blank => true
 
   #TODO is the validates uniqueness correct?  Allows duplicate TaxonNames to be created with same 
   #source_url but different taxon_ids