World Spider Catalog
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|---|---|
| Catalog and database of spiders - taxa | |
| languages | English |
| operator | Natural History Museum Bern |
| editorial staff | Natural History Museum Bern |
| Registration | Optional |
| On-line | 2000 (2014) (currently active) |
| https://wsc.nmbe.ch/ | |
The World Spider Catalog is a catalog of all spiders - taxa in the world and the related scientific publications. The catalog is maintained by the Natural History Museum in Bern and is available on the Internet as a searchable database. Users can upload their own scientific publications or those of others.
business
The catalog is maintained by an international group of authors who read the publications and record new taxa and make changes. In cases of doubt or dubious publications, they are supported by a group of experts who can resolve disputes and accept or reject publications.
history
The catalog was preceded by two publications in the 1940s to 1960s, which also provided a complete view of the spider taxa at the time. The seven-volume Bibliographia araneorum by the French arachnologist Pierre Bonnet ( University of Toulouse ) was published in three different editions in 1945 and 1961 and comprised about 6400 pages. It completely covered the state of spider biology and taxa at that time. The German arachnologist Carl Friedrich Roewer published the Araneae catalog of more than 2,700 pages from 1758 to 1940 . This was launched in 1942 and 1954. The catalog contained the taxonomically relevant publications sorted by taxon.
In 1983, Paolo Marcello Brignoli ( University of L'Aquila ) published the 750-page work A Catalog of the Araneae Described Between 1940 and 1981 . Although this catalog covered new taxa that did not appear in Roewer's catalog, it was not complete. He actually intended to publish supplements to the catalog on a regular basis. Due to his death in 1986, the project could not be realized. The American arachnologist Norman I. Platnick ( American Museum of Natural History , New York ) jumped into the void and continued the work of Brignoli. In 1989, 1993 and 1997 he published additions to Brignoli's work totaling 2500 pages. These covered the scientific publications from 1981 to 1995 and thus included all new descriptions, synonymizations and taxonomic transfers from 1940 to 1980.
The rapid increase in scientific publications (with more than 300 per year and over 900 additional taxa) made the work and regular publication more difficult. The ever-improving computer science and the worldwide spread of the Internet made a new form of maintenance and publication of the catalog possible. The American Museum of Natural History took over the hosting. Platnick launched the first online version (1.0) in July 2000. The second version (2.0) he published in July 2001. From 2002 he published the catalog twice a year. For the January edition, he added a .5 to the version number. The last version 15.0 was published on the usual platform in July 2014.
Since Norman I. Platnick retired in 2014, the task of continuing the catalog was transferred to the Natural History Museum of the Bürgergemeinde Bern . A database solution was implemented on the data of the World Spider Catalog 14.5, which makes the taxa fully searchable. The new solution was titled as version 15.5. Version 20.0 is currently (as of May 2019) online.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Natural History Museum Bern. World Spider Catalog - Boards . Retrieved July 17, 2018
- ↑ a b c d Natural History Museum Bern. World Spider Catalog - Introduction . Retrieved July 17, 2018