Taxonomy, at the click of a mouse

A Phylogenetic Analysis of Ant Morphology (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with Special Reference to the Poneromorph Subfamilies

“…A growing number of tools are being developed in taxonomy, tools that result from the interplay of digital imaging, cyber infrastructure, and information technology (Bisby et al, 2002;Wheeler, 2004); one result is that dissemination of morphological information is rapidly approaching the ''same data-sharing standards that our colleagues in molecular systematics already use to their great benefit'' (Agosti, 2003). Myrmecology plays a leading role in this bioinformatics revolution (Clarke, 2002;Gewin, 2002) with the development of pioneer web-based tools like antbase.org and antweb.org (Agosti, 2005): the former offering a name server with the totality of information about ant nomenclature and a digital library containing all the systematic literature on ants from Linnaeus to the present, and the latter containing a database with images of type and general specimens in museum collections and their associated geographical data.…”

Molecular Phylogeny, Biogeography and an e-Monograph of the Papaya Family (Caricaceae) as an Example of Taxonomy in the Electronic Age

“…Species identification via images is becoming more and more important, and freely available e-monographs that combine images (which will be picked up, for example, by "google images") with professionally curated names and descriptions can support such citizen science. Systematists, however, are not yet producing freely accessible taxonomic monographs (or floras) despite ten years' worth of admonitions (Bisby et al 2002;Wilson 2003;Wheeler 2004;Scotland and Wood 2012). This probably has two (related) reasons: The small number of people in a position to populate the existing cyber-infrastructure with data and the pressure for publishing in citable journals or monograph series.…”

“…Because taxonomy is the portal to the entire information available about species, the need for taxonomic research to "move into the electronic age" has long been clear (Bisby et al 2002;Wilson 2003;Wheeler 2004;Scotland and Wood 2012). Indeed species descriptions of animals and plants are now increasingly being published online .…”

Use of laser scanning confocal microscopy for morphological taxonomy and the potential for digital type specimens (e-types)

“…The unavailability of type specimens is a major impediment to rapid and accurate species identification, particularly for workers in the tropics (Balakrishnan 2005). With the renewed interest in natural history collections within the past 2 decades as a result of the biodiversity crisis (Alberch 1993, Dunn 2003, this problem is beginning to be addressed by the development of digital taxonomic databases accessible via the internet (Agosti & Johnson 2002, Bisby et al 2002, Gewin 2002, Godfray 2002a,b, Mallet & Willmott 2003, Thacker 2003, Wheeler 2003, Harris et al 2008, Smith et al 2009). As with any other digital information, it would be simple and quick to share and disseminate digital images, including 2D image z-stacks and full 3D reconstructions of specimens viewable by anaglyph, traditional stereo-image pairs or through polarised viewing technologies, using email or other digital media, with no risk of damage or loss to individual specimens.…”