TILS Scientific Names Index now online

[HpAzures at aol.com]

The International Lepidoptera Survey (TILS) is proud to announce that we have 
finally taken the first step toward making the online "Taxonomically Correct 
- Index of Scientific Butterfly Names" (TC-ISBN) a reality.  We welcome you 
to preview a draft of the Skipper portion of the Index, presently under 
construction via a link on our website at www.tils-ttr.org.  Joe, our 
webmaster, has gone to extraordinary lengths to produce the preliminary draft 
which is being refined as you read this.  

I'll be first to admit that this is a rather unorthodox way of introducing an 
information source such as this, but since one of the driving principles, 
that of user input, will be a determining force behind the success of the 
TC-ISBN, I decided to go ahead and start posting as we proceed with 
construction and refinement of the list.  The current draft is based on the 
"Supplement to: A Catalogue/Checklist of the Butterflies of America North of 
Mexico", Memoir No. 3 of the Lepidopterists' Society, Clifford Ferris, 
Editor.  However, there will be considerable changes in the coming months as 
I update the Index from available published resources.  Several people have 
offered their services as reviewers to insure that the Index contains the 
most current and accurate information and others have offered their services 
as consultants in particular groups, bringing published research to our 
attention.

The present draft contains some formatting errors, mainly due to frustrating 
quirks in program format conversions, but we can live with these for now and 
they should be corrected in time.  However, please feel free to offer 
comments to the Editor (me) for improvement, via the link on the intro page. 
 We hope to make this as informative and easy to use as possible.  

Ultimately, the TC-ISBN will feature drop-down menus, making retreiving of 
information quick and easy.  We are experimenting with ways to post 
associated notes which explain individual additions, changes, revisions, etc. 
as they are incorporated into the Index.  We hope that researchers, 
naturalists, hobbyists and watchers alike avail themselves to this 
information source.  It offers a unique approach to listing butterfly names 
without editorial or committee edict over published research, or unjustified 
changes brought about at the discretion of list compilers.  It also deviates 
from the current practice of lumping butterfly genera into broad, inclusive 
"super-genera" such as Callophrys, which is being used in a number of 
publications and websites to replace several described, related genera, 
despite published research to the contrary.  The nomenclature presented here 
is based wholly on what the original researching authors themselves intended 
through years of devoted research.

We also welcome authors of any published research which introduces changes in 
the nomenclature of North American butterflies, to send us copies of their 
papers so that they may be cited.  The proposed changes contained within 
these papers will be incorporated into the Index and will not be subject to 
another layer of peer review.

http://tils-ttr.org/tc-isbn/index.html

Harry Pavulaan

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20011031/668b34c6/attachment.html