Searching species - things to know
- In the species searchbox you can search for any piece of information that is contained in a full bi- or trinominal scientific name. For instance, typing your year of birth will list all taxa that were then described, or entering a genus name will retrieve an autocompleted list of all taxa that are currently combined with it.
- Original descriptions were consulted for all newly established taxa to make sure that orthography of taxon names and authorities, publication dates, nomenclatural availability, original combinations and spellings are presented as correctly as possible. If you nevertheless notice differences in any of these compared to entries in the Rotifer-LAN, don't be disturbed. These changes may have resulted from revisions following the public review of the LAN-proposal (ICZN Art.79.2.2.), of which the second year is now ongoing. It will end on 19 December 2016, and thereafter changes will be included in the Rotifer Part of the LAN, if adopted by the Commission.
- Every effort has been made to make the RWC-nomenclator as comprehensive as possible. Names are provided both in the form that they were originally published (original combination and spelling), and in their currently used genus-species combination. We have not (yet) attempted, however, to also list additional published usages of names, including subsequent genus-species combinations.
- We have also added whether or not a species-group name is declinable, to help in following the rule of gender agreement: according to the ICZN, declinable species-group names (i.e. adjectival names, or participles in the nominative singular) must be in agreement with the gender of the genus name with which they are at any time combined.
- Note that for all taxa 'original combination' and 'original spelling' of genus-species combinations are presented next to each other to allow for comparison of their spellings. In the majority of cases these will be identical, but differences reflect subsequent mandatory changes, as imposed by rules of nomenclature. See 'Taxonomic / nomenclatural notes' on respective species pages for the reasoning behind such changes.
- References to latest revisions are given for all taxa, but this does not necessarily mean that taxonomic opinions published therein are in accordance with those presented in the RWC. Nomenclatural details may also differ from previous usages, if so required by the provisions of the Code (ICZN) (mandatory changes of incorrect spellings, gender agreement issues, etc.).
- The very first illustration(s) that were published with a newly established taxon are presented as 'Original description'. If no figures were originally published, scans of verbatim descriptions are shown instead. 'Literature documentations' display subsequently published original illustrations, while 'Observation images' can be browsed for usually unpublished material, such as collection specimen images and expedition material.
- Georeferenced species records can be plotted on the map (currently based on Google Maps). Please bear in mind however, that at the current stage of data entry, this function is primarily provided as a tool for analysing individual records and regional occurrences, rather than providing a complete picture of species ranges. Less than half of the verified species records that are already in the database have so far been georeferenced, and many more need to be added in the future. See Locality-help for a note on browser-issues currently encountered with plotting species distributions.
- To get a reliable picture of global species distributions, go to the 'Biogeography - Larger Pattern' page.
- Limitations as mentioned above for georeferenced species records, similarly hold for calculations of ecological ranges and averages, as presented under 'Ecology & Distribution'. These are based exclusively on verified species records and associated ecology data, whereas verbatim statements in 'Ecology summary' and 'Geographical range' reflect overall assessments of published evidence (not yet available for all species). 'Macrohabitat' (larger environment) and 'Microhabitat' (substrate) data are derived only from verified records which have so far been added to the database.
- For more general hints on how to best use this site see “Help”.