[Taxacom] Why stability? - Revisited

[Dilrukshan Wijesinghe]

Rod wrote:
"I'm not denying that this is valuable, but it frustrates me that there is minimal connection to the underlying literature. What I see missing from many checklists, and aggregators as well, is the ability to drill down to the underlying science."
That's why aggregators are rubbish. The idea that there should be one (or a few) sites providing taxonomic information on all organisms is ludicrous, yet this seems to be the "philosophy" that drives the "aggregator industry". Every day we use specialized sources for information on a variety of topics that are of importance to us. Obviously, that is not seen as a huge problem; in fact, that diversity and specialization is understood to be necessary aspect of high-quality information.
Here are some specialized taxonomic websites that are vastly more reliable and useful than any aggregator:
World Spider Catalog
http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/

The Goblin Spider Planetary Biodiversity Inventory
http://research.amnh.org/oonopidae/index.php

Pseudoscorpions of the World
http://museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues-beta/pseudoscorpions

Jumping spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) of the world
http://www.jumping-spiders.com/index.php

Catalogue of Pholcidae
http://www.pholcidae.de/

Orthoptera Species File Online
http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Orthoptera/HomePage.aspx

Cercopoidea Organised On Line
http://rameau.snv.jussieu.fr/cool/index.php?&lang=en

Coreoidea Species File Online
http://coreoidea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Coreoidea/HomePage.aspx

World List of Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod Crustaceans
http://www.marinespecies.org/isopoda/

Global Taxnomic Daabase of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)
http://www.gracillariidae.net/

Psocodea Species File Online
http://psocodea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Psocodea/HomePage.aspx

Cassidinae of the world - an interactive manual (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) 
http://culex.biol.uni.wroc.pl/cassidae/katalog%20internetowy/index.htm


Priyantha
 
D. P. Wijesinghe
dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com