diff --git a/speciesData.py b/speciesData.py
index 2f56fab42cedcce9abb6c3c885f3ff44440b7245..5d9ffc2a51abf5d4211232c9e6db09226729e286 100755
--- a/speciesData.py
+++ b/speciesData.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ class SpeciesData:
 
     """
 
-    def clean_string(string):
+    def clean_string(self, string):
         if not string is None and string != "":
             clean_string = string.replace(" ", "_").replace("-", "_").replace("(", "").replace(")", "").replace("'", "").strip()
             return clean_string