Marine Lobsters of the World
This program provides a comprehensive account of all marine lobsters of interest to fisheries. It is based on FAO's Species Catalogue no 13 by L.B. Holthuis. For the Marine Lobsters of the World project, the data of the catalogue have been updated and supplemented with recent information. Where possible, color pictures of the species have been added, to facilitate identification. The Marine Lobster Program is composed of various sections to structure the information and makes searching for particular topics easier. Species diagnoses, provided by C. Fransen, were added.
The identification characters of lobsters are explained in detail in the introduction section, which also provides the user with general facts about morphology.
This programme gives a full taxonomic description of all 149 lobsters species known to be of interest to fisheries, including habitus drawings, distribution maps and color photographs. Each species description covers the following topics: habitus, distribution, synonyms, taxonomy and literature. Information on 3 infra-orders, 10 families and 33 genera is provided. In total, 820 drawings and pictures are incorporated in the program, giving a complete and detailed overview of all taxa described.
Identification of the Marine Lobsters is facilitated by an illustrated interactive identification key. The simple "point and click" method leads the user to the species. The program produces a "decision map", indicating the identification steps taken and allowing "back tracking": quickly going back on previous choices. A species and higher taxa list allows the user to directly access species or higher taxa data, bypassing the identification tool. The program supports fast searches in all text parts of the program.
An interactive glossary of specific terms was built into theprogram to facilitate use by students and inexperienced users. A simple click on an unknown word in the descriptions will open up the glossary section. Relevant literature references can be accessed and searched for in the separate Reference Section of the program.
The original CD-ROM was the first in a proposed series of economically important species to be done in cooperation with FAO and ETI.