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
| Algeria | cB |
Côte d'Ivoire | hJ |
Kenya | iW |
Nigeria | hO |
Syria | cI |
| Angola | jA |
Djibouti | hW |
Kuwait | cN |
Oman | cP |
Tanzania | iZ |
| Bahrain | cO |
Egypt | cE |
Lebanon | cH |
Qatar | cO |
Togo | hM |
| Benin | hN |
Equat. Guinea | iB |
Lesotho | jI |
Reunion Isl. | jW |
Tunisia | cC |
| Botswana | jF |
Eritrea | hU |
Liberia | hH |
Rwanda | iX |
Uganda | iV |
| Burkina Faso | hK |
Ethiopia | hV |
Libya | cD |
S.Thomé/ Principe | hY |
Arab Emirates | cO |
| Burundi | iY |
Gabon | iC |
Madagascar | jV |
Saudi Arabia | cM |
Western Sahara | hB |
| Cameroon | hR |
Gambia | hD |
Malawi | jC |
Senegal | hD |
Yemen | cQ |
| Canary Isl. | cV |
Ghana | hL |
Mali | hI |
Seychelles | jZ |
Zaire | iE |
| Cape Verde Isl. | hA |
Guinea | hF |
Mauritania | hC |
Sierra Leone | hG |
Zambia | jB |
| Central Africa | hS |
Guinea-Bissau | hE |
Mauritius | jX |
Somalia | hX |
Zimbabwe | jE |
| Chad | hQ |
Iraq | cL |
Morocco | cA |
Soqotra Isl. | cW |
| |
| Comores | jY |
Israel/ Palestine | cF |
Mozambique | jD |
South Africa | jJ |
| |
| Congo | iD |
Ivory Coast | hJ |
Namibia | jG |
Sudan | hT |
| |
| Congo (Zaire) | iE |
Jordan | cG |
Niger | hP |
Swaziland | jH |
→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