A Checklist of the Insects of Subsaharan Africa

Surprisingly, such a basic list does not exist, despite some 250 years of formal scientific description of life on earth. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), along with the National Museum of Natural History, is therefore sponsoring the production of the list, which will provide a reliable platform of 'standard' names for species on which many other projects depend.

This list, or authority file, will greatly enhance communication both among scientists and between scientists and users of scientific data. The African list will also be a major contribution toward the proposed list of world species (e.g. the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Species 2000 initiative of DIVERSITAS). A demonstration database is provided for the species of the orders Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), Megaloptera (alderflies), Hemiptera-Heteroptera (true bugs), Homoptera (cicadas, leafhoppers, planthoppers, scales, and others), and Trichoptera (caddisflies).