Disclaimer

This website has been developed for taxonomic purposes. The information on which it is based is subject to change, correction, improvement and upgrades. There are likely to be errors, and no guarantee is supplied that information is correct. The user is advised in all cases to verify information before accepting it.

Querying the database

Clicking the menu choice "Select & Search" on the left hand bar leads to the Select & Search page, where there are prompts for three pieces of information: the biological kingdom required (a box with a drop-down menu), the taxonomic rank at which the user desires to make a search (a box with a drop-down menu) and the scientific name of the organism for which information is required (a box in which information can be keyboarded). Important. When keyboarding this information, remove all accented characters and hyphens (e.g. keyboard Epichloe typhina not Epichloë typhina, Helicoon not Helicoön, Cortinarius albidoavellaneus not Cortinarius albido-avellaneus etc.) as inclusion of such characters will result in the search being rejected. After these boxes have been filled, press the <Enter> key, or click on "Search" to submit the information. A search will then be performed, and a Search Result page will be displayed. If more than one matching item is found in the database, the Search Result page will provide a prompt and a list of the matching items with hyperlinks enabling the user to select the exact item required. If only part of a name is keyboarded, every name which begins with the letters keyboarded will be displayed. Important. At generic or species level, the search for keyboarded names less than 8 characters long will display only exact matches.

Format of the Search Result page

Each Search Result page starts with the name of the current organism followed, where available, by its authors and place and exact page of publication. Bold text for a scientific name indicates that the name is regarded by the editors of Cybernome as good to use. Where information is available, there may be hyperlinks for author names (which will result in information from Cybertruffle's Valhalla about that author appearing in a new window) and/or place of publication (which will result in information from Cyberliber appearing in a new window).

Further nomenclatural and taxonomic information about the current organism is then provided as follows: basionym (if different from current name and where known); synonym(s) (where known); status; taxonomic position; constituent taxa (where known); catalogue data (where available, and only for fungal names). The entries for basionym, synonym(s), taxonomic position and constituent taxa all take the form of names with hyperlinks. Clicking on such a hyperlink will make that name the current organism. The entry for status indicates the taxonomic rank of the current name and provides supplementary information, where available, if the name relates to an anamorphic fungus, a lichen-forming fungus, or a fossil. Entries for catalogue data which have a hyperlink will result in an image of the relevant catalogue page being shown in a new window through Cyberliber.

If there are records identified as the current taxon in Cybertruffle's Robigalia, an entry entitled "Biological Records Database" is then displayed, with a hyperlink showing the number of records available. Clicking on this hyperlink results in the relevant page of Cybertruffle's Robigalia opening in a new window.

Finally, links are provided to other relevant websites. Currently these are Google (with no guarantee that any matches for the current name will be found) and, where available and for fungal names only to IndexFungorum.

Alphabets and Languages

Apart from the Latin in universal use for scientific names, the default language in the databases of Cybernome is English, and the default alphabet is the Latin alphabet. When one of the other available languages has been selected, the prompts and most of the information will be presented seamlessly in that language, using its normal alphabet. At present the main exception is:

names of authors are given in the Latin alphabet following, where possible, widely accepted standard abbreviations.