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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions


How to use CarabCat, the searchable online catalogue of literature citations

Search: The form allows you to search on accepted names of taxa and/ or case-sensitive country codes. Accepted names can be checked in CarabCat-Checklist or Catalogue of Life;.
You can use substrings delimited by wildcards *.
Country codes: In order to avoid conflicts with homonymous names of countries (e.g., Guinea), the search for distributions is optimized on opaque (non-transparent) case-sensitive country codes (see alphabetical list).

Results displayed:

  • the accepted name (all results are sorted in alphabetical order by names)
  • the reference by author(s) and date (microcitations) or - where available - the BHL page IDs.
    The relevant page can be accessed by adding the page ID to: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/
  • the page(s) and figures in the reference
  • the name (verbatim spelling) used as the accepted name in the reference
  • the content found in the reference (codes are: B = biology; C = catalogue/ bibliographic data; D = morphological description (imago); E = ecology; F = farming, agriculture & forestry related topics; G = genetics; L = larval description; N = aspects of conservation; P = phylogeny; R = geographical range, faunistic records; S = synonymy; T = type material; U = urban habitats, aspects of urban ecology; W = wing morphology, dispersal power).

  • How to use CarabMap-Africa, the electronic map and searchable database of afrotropical ground beetles

    Search: The form allows you to search on accepted names of taxa and/ or 1 by 1 degree gridcells (i.e., fields delimited by full degrees of latitude and longitude).
    Accepted names can be checked in CarabCat-Checklist or Catalogue of Life;.
    You can use substrings with wildcards *
    The geographic function uses unique ID-numbers for 1 by 1 degree gridcells, e.g.: gridcell Nr. NE11027 is located between 11 and 12 degrees northern latitude and 27 and 28 degrees eastern longitude.

    Results: By clicking on a species' name, results can be displayed as dots in a grid map or, by clicking on "details", in associated data tables containing the following information:

  • name of country or island
  • ID-numbers of gridcells
  • the year of the last record
  • the museums and private collections holding specimens associated with the data. In case no specimens in museums or collections are known, other sources of information (e.g., literature, public or private data holders) are given.

    COUNTRY CODES

    Afrotropical Region and adjacent areas
    AlgeriacB Côte d'IvoirehJ KenyaiW NigeriahO SyriacI
    AngolajA DjiboutihW KuwaitcN OmancP TanzaniaiZ
    BahraincO EgyptcE LebanoncH QatarcO TogohM
    BeninhN Equat. GuineaiB LesothojI Reunion Isl.jW TunisiacC
    BotswanajF EritreahU LiberiahH RwandaiX UgandaiV
    Burkina FasohK EthiopiahV LibyacD S.Thomé/ PrincipehY Arab EmiratescO
    BurundiiY GaboniC MadagascarjV Saudi ArabiacM Western SaharahB
    CameroonhR GambiahD MalawijC SenegalhD YemencQ
    Canary Isl.cV GhanahL MalihI SeychellesjZ ZaireiE
    Cape Verde Isl.hA GuineahF MauritaniahC Sierra LeonehG ZambiajB
    Central AfricahS Guinea-BissauhE MauritiusjX SomaliahX ZimbabwejE
    ChadhQ IraqcL MoroccocA Soqotra Isl.cW
    ComoresjY Israel/ PalestinecF MozambiquejD South AfricajJ
    CongoiD Ivory CoasthJ NamibiajG SudanhT
    Congo (Zaire)iE JordancG NigerhP SwazilandjH →Back to CarabCat
    Note: Currently the focus of CarabCat is on the Afrotropical fauna, but more data will be added soon.
    For additional information please contact us.


    MUSEUMS
    Amsterdam = Zoologisch Museum, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Basel = Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Switzerland
    Berlin = Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
    Blantyre = Museum of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi
    Bologna = Instituto di Zoologia dell' Universita, Bologna, Italy
    Bonn = Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander König, Bonn, Germany
    Bremen = Übersee-Museum Bremen, Germany
    Brussels = Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Bruxelles, Belgium
    Budapest = Hungarian Natural History Museum
    Bulawayo = National Museum, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    Cambridge/ Mass. = Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge/ MA, U.S.A.
    Cape Town = South African Museum, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa
    Chaux-de-Fonds = Museum La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
    Copenhagen = Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark
    Dakar = Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, Dakar, Senegal
    Darmstadt = Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany
    Dresden = Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde, Dresden, Germany
    Durban = Durban Museum and Art Gallery, Durban, Republic of South Africa
    Eberswalde = Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Eberswalde, Germany
    Erfurt = Naturkundemuseum Erfurt, Germany
    Florence = Museo Zoologico La Specola, Firenze, Italy
    Frankfurt = Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
    Geneva = Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Genève, Switzerland
    Genoa = Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria, Genova, Italy
    Grahamstown = Albany Museum, Grahamstown, Republic of South Africa
    Hamburg = Zoologisches Insitut und Museum, Universität von Hamburg, Germany
    Helsinki = Zoologiska Museet, Universitets Helsinki, Finland
    Leiden = Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, Netherlands
    Lisboa = Laboratorio de Zoologia, Faculdade de Ciencias, Lisboa, Portugal
    London = British Museum (Natural History), London, U.K.
    Lourenço Marques = Museu Dr. Alvaro de Castro, Lourenço Marques, Mozambique
    Lund = Museum of Zoology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
    Madrid = Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain
    Milan = Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Milano, Italy
    Munich = Zoologische Sammlung des Bayerischen Staates, München, Germany
    Nairobi = National Museum of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
    New York = American Museum of Natural History, New York, U.S.A.
    Paris = Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
    Pietermaritzburg = Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, Republic of South Africa
    Prague = National Museum (Natural History), Praha, Czechia
    Pretoria (PPRI) = Plant Protection Research Institute, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
    Pretoria (TM) = Transvaal Museum, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
    San Francisco = California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, U.S.A.
    St.Petersburg = Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, U.S.S.R.
    Stockholm = Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
    Tervuren = Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgium
    Triest = Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Trieste, Italy
    Warsaw = Museum of the Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Science, Warszawa, Poland
    Washington = United States National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
    Wien = Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria
    Wiesbaden = Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlung, Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
    Windhoek = State Museum, Windhoek, Namibia

    PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
    FREY = Museum Frey, c/o Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Germany
    LORENZ = Collection Lorenz, Tutzing, Germany
    SCHÜLE = Collection Schüle, Herrenberg, Germany
    WERNER = Collection Werner, Peiting, Germany