Biodiversity informatics in Orthoptera: a promissory future for taxonomy

CIGLIANO, M.M.

Natal

Congreso; XXIII Congresso Brasileiro de Entomologia, Natal, Brasil, 26-30 de Septiembre, 2010.; 2010

The global imperative for the conservation of biodiversity has brought into focus the needs for taxonomic research. However, the crisis facing the conservation of biodiversity is reflected in a parallel crisis in taxonomy. Species are rapidly going extinct and at the same time there is an enormous shortage of taxonomists who can identify and describe species. Moreover, revisionary taxonomy is frequently dismissed as merely descriptive and lacking a hypothesis driven nature. Phylogenetic classifications are optimal for storing and predicting information, but phylogeny divorced from taxonomy is unrealizable. Taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny are interwoven, hypothesis-driven sciences with a theoretical base. Taxonomy needs to prepare to take advantage of new information technology capabilities. The rapid advances in biodiversity informatics have provided unprecedented opportunities to conduct and disseminate taxonomic research more efficiently. Cybertaxonomy is emerging as an exciting new branch. The development of technology in digital imaging, databasing, and cyberinfrastructure has merged with taxonomy to result in what is referred to as cybertaxonomy. The potential of using the Orthoptera Species File online (OSF; http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/) as a tool in systematic studies of Orthoptera is presented herein, as well as a way of integrating many of the most recent cybertaxonomic tools with species descriptions and taxonomic publications. The use of embedded hyperlinks to high quality images of the habitus and diagnostic characters of the species, specimen records maps, interactive keys and sound records in OSF brings vital additional information to a published taxonomic text. The semantic enhancements to biodiversity papers are expected to greatly extend the way taxonomic information is published, disseminated and used. An example of application of these newly developed technologies of OSF applied in the revisionary, cladistic and biogeographic study of the high Andean grasshopper genus Jivarus Giglio-Tos (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Melanoplinae) will be presented.http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/) as a tool in systematic studies of Orthoptera is presented herein, as well as a way of integrating many of the most recent cybertaxonomic tools with species descriptions and taxonomic publications. The use of embedded hyperlinks to high quality images of the habitus and diagnostic characters of the species, specimen records maps, interactive keys and sound records in OSF brings vital additional information to a published taxonomic text. The semantic enhancements to biodiversity papers are expected to greatly extend the way taxonomic information is published, disseminated and used. An example of application of these newly developed technologies of OSF applied in the revisionary, cladistic and biogeographic study of the high Andean grasshopper genus Jivarus Giglio-Tos (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Melanoplinae) will be presented.Jivarus Giglio-Tos (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Melanoplinae) will be presented.