Taxonomists have always been at the forefront of efforts to document global biodiversity. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the vast majority (perhaps 90% or more) of species remain undocumented. Because the number of practicing taxonomists is not likely to increase appreciably in the near future, the most practical solution to addressing the need for more rapid species discovery and documentation is to make taxonomists more efficient.

The authors received two NSF RevSys grants to do a revisionary study of the two largest leafhopper genera Erythroneura and Empoasca. To accomplish the projects, the 3i software package was developed (Dmitriev, 2003 onward). “3i” is an abbreviation for the Internet-accessible Interactive Identification. This is a set of tools intended to facilitate the efficient production of Internet-based virtual taxonomic revisions and published monographs. The package facilitates storage, retrieval and integration of taxonomic nomenclature, specimen-level data on distributions and ecological associations, morphological character data and associated illustrations, and bibliographic information. These data are stored in a customized MS Access database. Web interfaces include simple and advanced searches on any field in the database, interactive keys designed to include attributes similar to those of Delta IntKey and Lucid (two popular programs for development of interactive keys), and complete taxon treatments including synonymies, descriptions, images, lists of material examined, distributional maps, tables of host plants, and literature citations.

A virtual taxonomic revision is not intended to substitute, but rather to supplement and simplify the process of preparation of a manuscript for the traditional paper printed version. The data could be structured and presented in the form suitable for transferring it into any text editing software. Standardized descriptions of the taxa are generated on-the-fly from the list of characters, their states, and the data matrix. The same or slightly modified data matrices can be used for phylogenetic analyzes. Distributional maps are generated from the georeferenced material. Dichotomous keys are converted from the data matrices on the step by step basis. All taxonomic names are spelled only once in the database, this significantly reduces the number of possible misspellings in the final version of the monograph. All this not only significantly simplifies the process of gathering, storing, and retrieving of the taxonomy related information, but also simplifies the processes of converting all necessary information into a manuscript. The paper version of the revision summarizes the knowledge on the group, plays the role of a backup copy, and is essential, when doing identification without access to the Internet and in the field.

3i helped authors to produce complete virtual on-line revisions of a group of leafhoppers comprising nearly 700 species in 5 years and prepare 6 monographs. Data from 3i are shared with Catalog of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, Discover Life, and GBiF. Currently the first author collaborates with the Species File group to enhance functionality of the later with tools required to produce virtual taxonomic revisions.

URLs:

Dmitriev, 2003 onward. 3i interactive keys and taxonomic databases. http://ctap.inhs.uiuc.edu/dmitriev/

Species File software: A foundation for taxonomic database development. http://software.speciesfile.org/