A few days ago I finished compiling a large checklist to all known (and some unknown) isopods in North America north of Mexico. It also includes Bermuda, most of the Bahamas (sans Mayaguana and the Inaguas since those started getting too close to other regions biotically to include without adding tons of new species), Hawaii, two US minor islands in the Pacific near Hawaii and the giant swath of ocean between all areas.
The first tab is the main checklist (which is completed), the following tabs are works-in-progress that I’m using to help make my guides to all North American Isopods. Hopefully someone will find the checklist useful! Link to checklist
There probably isn’t, but one could be made! I’m wrapped up in the isopod guide and other stuff but you can use the format I used for making checklists for other groups too
I have found that checklists are of limited use in the absence of keys. As in, I know which species are likely to be in a given area; but I don’t know how to tell which one I am observing.
No worries! I’m working on copying down descriptions into one mega-document and making keys for everything since all of the literature is scattered all over the place. I’m only on the first family out of around 100 or so families (granted it’s the hell that’s Asellidae but still), but at the rate I’m going at I should have a good amount completed at the end of the year if I don’t wander off or get burnt out
Hi, this looks fantastic and I encourage you to publish it somewhere or otherwise make it widely available. Some place like this?: https://checklist.pensoft.net/
It deserves to be accessible, and cited by scientists. Someone commented that it;s not much use without a key. However, these sorts of lists are the first step to a full understanding of a group of organisms - “which species are already known from the region?” helps narrow down the quest for an ID when the keys do not yet exist.
There are so many insect species that this is rather daunting, and there are so many undescribed species. There was a list done in 1996, called Nomina Insecta Nearctica (Poole 1996), but with zero distribution info beyond “North America”. But such a list of names is the first step - a list of all valid species, plus all the synonyms. There are more refined lists in some groups of insects. For example, there is a list of Lepidoptera of NA, (Hodges et al 1983) with a new one in the works and coming soon. There are good lists of beetles and Lepdoptera for Canada + AK.
Thanks! The checklist still needs some improvements (including any species I could have missed), but once I’m done I defintiely plan on publishing it. I’m also slowly working on a checklist and guide to all isopods globally, but that might take a decade or so of work to complete.