Electronic Catalogue of Weevil names (Curculionoidea)

   The catalogue is being developed as a joint project between Miguel Alonso-Zarazaga of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Natruales in Madrid and Chris Lyal of The Natural History Museum in London.

   Following our work on the genus and family-group names of the Curculionoidea we are now including all previously-omitted names (Scolytinae and Platypodinae) and all species names for the superfamily. The names are initially being entered from secondary literature (primarily the Coleopterorum Catalogous and the Zoological Record).

   Once names from these sources, together with the names from other key sources such as Wood and Bright (1992) and it s supplements, and Zimmerman's Weevils of Australia check , have been entered, they will be checked against the original descriptions and papers where new combinations, synonymies, and other changes, were made. Finally, they will be scrutinized by us, and by other specialists in the group to ensure the catalogue reflects the most recent opinion. Each record is presented with an indication of the level of scrutiny (see How to use the database).

The project is supported by grants from the Spanish MEC (BOS2002-01205) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

	Miguel A. Alonso-Zarazaga is a weevil specialist at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain. He is also a member of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. With Chris Lyal he published the World Checklist of weevil families and genera and its supplement. Miguel and Chris are Joint PIs of the project.   Chris Lyal is a weevil specialist at The Natural History Museum, London, UK, where he leads the Beetle Diversity & Evolution Research Group. He is Chair of the GBIF Science Subcommittee on Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms, and was Acting Programme Officer for the Global Taxonomy Initiative 2000-2003.         Manuel Sánchez-Ruiz works at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales with Miguel, and in the project is responsible for the database management and web placement.   Gudbjorg Inga Aradottir works at The Natural History Museum with Chris, and is responsible in the project for data entry.     Mar Ramos Sanz colaborates with Miguel at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, and is responsible in the project for data entry.