Establishing stability in weevil names
Sitophilus oryzae, the rice weevil © Olaf Leillinger
Many of the vast number of weevil species have been named more than once, or have had their names misspelled. Entomologists at the Natural History Museum and colleagues overseas are collaborating in sorting out nomenclatural problems and providing a single, expert-checked, name for each species and genus.
Recently published material includes:
- a review of the generic and family-group names of bark beetles and powder-post beetles (Scolytinae and Platypodinae)
- a chapter on the Dryopthorid species published in the Palaearctic catalogue
A major project is an online database of weevil names which is used as a basis by initiatives such as Species 2000 and GBIF. It is available on the web at http://wtaxa.csic.es/
Project collaborators:
- Chris Lyal
- Miguel Alonso-Zarazaga