| Checklist of the Collembola: Global Distribution Maps |
Frans Janssens,
Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, B-2020, Belgium
Kenneth A. Christiansen,
Department of Biology, Grinnell College, PO Box V3, Grinnell, IA 50112-0806, USA
Global distribution maps are provided for all species,
at the resolution of biogeographic regions.
The biogeographic regions are coded in line with
Christiansen & Bellinger (1995), amended by Culik & Zeppelini (2003).
For the definitions of the region codes, check out the
biogeographic regions map.
In addition, overview maps are compiled per genus and family rank, based on
the data available for the set of subordinate species.
The region data are represented graphically in the form of a world map,
and alphanumerically in the form of a list of region codes.
The map is dynamically drawn by your browser
based on the raw region codes. Valid regions are filled with red dots;
doubthfull regions are filled with yellow dots.
Beneath the map, the list of region codes is displayed for further reference.
Note that the alphanumerical as well as the graphical representation
of the regions only indicate that the species occures somewhere in the regions
and not all over the regions.
To open a distribution map of a species, genus or family,
click on the keyword 'Species', 'Genus' or 'Family' in front of the taxon
in the checklist.
An example: click on the keyword 'Species' below to open the map of
Podura aquatica:
Species aquatica Linnæus, C, 1758:609
Close the map when finished.
For your convenience, in all maps, two links are provided, located directly
under the map in the right hand corner:
1. 'Biogeographic map': to open the static map of biogeographic regions; and
2. 'Biogeographic regions': to open the interactive list of defined regions:
whenever you select a region from the list, it will be dynamically drawn on
the world map. This will allow you to 'practise' the region codes versus
region names versus region maps.
A number of workers have started entering the region codes (numbers) of the biogeographic regions in which their species have been found in all papers dealing with either new species or new records. This is a very useful procedure and we urge all workers to do it. All published data is compiled in an interactive World-wide Biogeographic Distribution Database. Authors of published region codes are credited by a reference to their paper.
New:
The Collembola geotagging project
is an alternative distribution mapping project based on an interactive zoomable global distribution map of
photographic records of alive Collembola specimens. The map is not only zoomable
but also searchable. This free mapping service is provided by Flickr.
In this project, macrophotographs of alive Collembola specimens are tagged
with location data. The geotagged pictures are then presented on a zoomable
global distribution map. At each zoomed level the map can be searched for
photographic Collembola records.
The project initiated in March 2008 and photographers of Collembola are invited
and encouraged to join.