List of ID reference and download links
Under Ongoing Construction
GENERAL
GBIF | Global Biodiversity Information Facility https://www.gbif.org
BARCODE OF LIFE DATA SYSTEM http://www.boldsystems.org
ADU Virtual Museum http://vmus.adu.org.za/
Speciesfiles of various smaller orders, eg cockroaches, aphids, mantids http://software.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Software/Files/Files.aspx
PLANTS
Plants of southern Africa http://posa.sanbi.org/sanbi/Explore
Plants of the World Online (Kew) http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org
Easy identification of some South African wetland plants (pdf, 69MB, Water Research Commission) (Sedges, rushes etc) http://www.wrc.org.za/pages/displayitem.aspx?itemid=9021&fromurl=%2fpages%2fkh_documentslist.aspx%3fdt%3d%26ms%3d3%3b%26d%3deasy+identification+of+some+south+african+wetland+plants%26start%3d81
Easy identification of Aquatic Plants (pdf, Dept Water Affairs) https://www.dwa.gov.za/iwqs/biomon/aquaplantsa/dwaf_2004_easy_identification_of_aquatic_plants_web.pdf
Helichrysum key for southern Africa https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/helichrysum/key/Helichrysum/Media/Html/home.htm
Zimbabwe Flora https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/index.php Very useful for ZA too
Identification guide to southern African grasses An identification manual with keys, descriptions and distributions http://opus.sanbi.org/handle/20.500.12143/5602
ODONATA
A Visual Guide to the Damselflies and Dragonflies of South Africa http://www.dragonflies-id.co.za
DIPTERA
Manual of Afrotropical Diptera Vol 1 http://afrotropicalmanual.org/pdfs/2017_Suricata4_Spriggs_Sinclair.pdf
Manual of Afrotropical Diptera Vol 2
http://afrotropicalmanual.org/pdfs/2017_Suricata5_Spriggs_Sinclair.pdf
Wing venation of Eupeodes corollae https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/cszma.2013.62.issue-3/cszma-2013-0021/cszma-2013-0021.pdf p14
Syrphidae checklist of South Africa http://www.syrphidae.com/checklist.php?country=ZA
Fly antenna ID guide http://phorid.net/zadbi/education/how-to-identify-flies/how-to-identify-flies-antennae-shape/
HEMIPTERA
Heteroptera of Tswalu Game Reserve (photographs) Dawid Jacobs http://www.drrd.co.za/document/download/529
Lygaeoidea (Seed bugs) speciesfile http://lygaeoidea.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Lygaeoidea/HomePage.aspx
Treehoppers http://treehoppers.insectmuseum.org/public/site/treehoppers/home
ORTHOPTERA
Orthoptera Species File http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/HomePage/Orthoptera/HomePage.aspx
Orthoptera Checklist, compiled by Corey Bazelet http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Orthoptera.xls
African Tetrigidae Günther K. 1979. Die Tetrigoidea von Afrika südlich der Sahara. (210MB) https://www.contributions-to-entomology.org/article/view/1130/1129
COLEOPTERA
Afrotropical Flea beetle genera https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3560840/
Afrotropical Galerucinae (good for Monolepta) http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/systax/daten/index.html
Clytrinae by Medvedev and Erber for Antipus rufus https://journals.co.za/content/nfi_annalstm/40/1/AJA00411752_9
Annotated review of Cryptocephalinae (Clytrini), Synetinae and part of Galerucinae (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) described by Carl Peter Thunberg Jan BEZDĚK
https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/view/641/1485
Cassidinae of the World http://www.cassidae.uni.wroc.pl/katalog%20internetowy/index.htm
African Eumolpinae http://chrysomelidae.it/afr_Eum/index.html
Key to Lycus species - Mike Bate's journal https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/fubr/17032-key-to-the-male-lycus-sp-of-southern-africa-after-stamhuis-1992
LEPIDOPTERA
African Moths (good for thumbnail pages but taxonomy is out of date) https://africanmoths.com/
AfroMoths (searchable, up to date taxonomy) http://www.afromoths.net
HYMENOPTERA
Waspweb http://waspweb.org/
Bee genera of South Africa http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/bee-genera-of-SA.pdf
Geographical distributions of Bembix in southern Africa, with notes on biology https://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=1653 (click on photos for high-res versions)
MOLLUSCA
The introduced terrestrial mollusca of South Africa by D.G. Herbert http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BioSeries_15_2010.pdf
Comments
Awesome! Thank you Jane. A very useful list. I started a draft one a few months back, hoping it would prompt me to get cracking with it, but it still sits unpopulated, with the exception of the Damselflies and Dragonflies website.
Lee, if you come across any other useful ID links please advise! I will be building this one over time.
I will happily push them your way. Makes far more sense to build a single list. Thanks!!
Another one for you? Not South African but global.
Cryptocephalinae of the World:
http://camptosomata.myspecies.info/
which includes a sizeable media gallery: http://camptosomata.myspecies.info/gallery
Thanks Lee. Lots of lovely photos. Wish we had something like this for southern Africa.
I suspect these sorts of collections are growing. One of the biggest challenges is to keep them updated. One of the reasons why these platforms (such as iNat) are so exceptionally useful, because there is active curation for many of the taxa and loads of 'eyes on'.
As more specialists and taxonomists see the value of these sorts of repositories iNat (and other citizen science platforms) will likely be some of the most up-to-date resources? I wonder.
I love it when Wongun or John Ascher (for example) start to ID their special groups. Suddenly, a whole load of observations get kicked into a different family, genus or subgenus and things become just that much more clear.
Add a Comment