Complementary initiatives in taxonomy
A great deal of taxonomy is posted on the internet, although rarely are major taxa covered comprehensively. Furthermore, quality varies considerably. FishBase, a global information system on fish, is the most complete for a conspicuous and economically important group. The Echinoid Directory provides a genus-level web revision to around 50% of the genera, and Bombus: Bumblebees of the World presents nomenclatural data and distribution maps for the species of this genus and, in many cases, diagnostic features. These are just three examples of the many taxonomic websites that are developing on the internet. Some internet sites (termed 'mashups', 2006, Nature 439: 6-7) merge information from distributed internet sources, (e.g., www.antbase.org and iSpecies, a demonstrator tool for building species pages 'on the fly').
There is much taxonomic infrastructure on the web. Some websites (e.g., Species 2000, a federation of distributed databases, and the International Plant Name Index (IPNI), provide access to respectively very basic taxonomic and nomenclatural data. Others allow users to gain access to specimen- or collection-level metadata (or both) (e.g., BioCASE). The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) acts as the international umbrella organisation for a variety of such infrastructural data.
The European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) is a large EU-funded Network of Excellence dedicated to integrating taxonomic effort across Europe. Since undertaking revisionary taxonomy on The internet is an important component of EDIT, close ties will be maintained between the two projects and a healthy cross-fertilisation of ideas is eagerly anticipated. EDIT will provide a valuable European environment for the promotion of internet-based taxonomy.
Websites of the CATE target taxa
There are many websites with information on sphingids and aroids, an observation underlining the problem that fragmentation of taxonomic data occurs on the internet as well as in paper publications.
Sphingidae (Hawkmoths).
There are many websites devoted to hawkmoths. Examples that contain some taxonomic content include:
- Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic
- Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic
- Lepidoptera and some other life forms: Sphingidae
- Moths of Borneo, part 3
- Zoologische Staatssammlung München type catalogue
The first two of these contain confirmed primary type information for the included taxa; the third is part of an extensive but uncritical compilation of similar information; the fourth is part of a regional monographic series; and the fifth is an online catalogue of type material held by the Zoologisches Staatssammlung, Munich. In addition, there are numerous other web sites containing data on biology, ecology and biogeography, as well as simple checklists and illustrations of moths held in both institutional and private collections.
