Database Totals

Insect species: 4397
Plant species: 3167
Total specimens: 56,255

Insect types -
     MCZ: 1060
     SI: 56 (bark beetles)

Plant types -
     HUH: 919
     NYBG: 71
     JBN: 154

Species imaged: 5710

Search the Database

Presented here is a database of specimens, including label data and images, from the respective insect or plant collections of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural and the Jardin Botanico Nacional (JBN) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the Smithsonian Institution (SI), New York Botanical Gardens (NYBG), Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), Harvard University Herbaria (HUH) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). We are grateful to these institutions for their generous contributions of data and images.

The expertise, infrastructure and support for the database was established with funding from grants by the National Science Foundation to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, supplemented with support from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Fundación Ecológica Punta Cana.

This database should be viewed as the first step toward the goal of providing a digital atlas of the insects and plants of Hispaniola and other Caribbean locations, which will include both the historical collections in each participating country and new collections made through ongoing initiatives. Nevertheless, it is a prototype with many identifications that require verification.

Browse the database
Click on Search the Database to browse species information and images in the database. For example, to look at sphingid moths, click on "Sphingidae" in the drop-down list in the family field. Searches can be broad by using Order (insects only) or All taxonomy, or more specific by searching for a particular species or genus. The result will be a list of species (or no records found), with links to images and specimen data. When viewing images you can then use the "compare" function to look at images of all species within the genus for a particular image category.

Help us with identifications
We invite any taxonomists to help us with identifications. If you can make any identifications or notice any misidentifications, or other errors, please contact us. All unidentified species now have an e-mail link. If you believe you can make a correct identification for a particular species, click on the link and an e-mail message box will open. Include as much information as possible in the message and we will make all appropriate changes to the database.

Many thanks to Norman Woodley, Ruth Bastardo, Charlie O'Brien (weevils), Robert Anderson (weevils), Steve Lingafelter (Cerambycidae), Rob Longair (Hymenoptera), Fredy Molano (Gerridae), and Westin Opitz (Cleridae), who have supplied many identifications and corrections.

Search the Species

Advanced Search

top