diff --git a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
index b499bf32590c2b6fe31e72b6726d2784e1838de7..a57562ce0cd43af8c8a841e5e7bd6cea76c1ec0c 100644
--- a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
+++ b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Utils/ConversionSupport.pm
@@ -1028,8 +1028,7 @@ sub species {
   $self->{'_species'} = shift if (@_);
   # get species name from database if not set
   unless ($self->{'_species'}) {
-    $self->{'_species'} = join('_',
-			       split(/ /, $self->get_species_scientific_name));
+    $self->{'_species'} = $self->get_species_scientific_name;
   }
   return $self->{'_species'};
 }