How to ?

To start identifying species, choose a Project in the main menu, and browse through to the taxonomic group of interest. At the family and genus level, the image filter and other tools become available to identify a species.

What is ?

The Fauna Portal is an authoritative identification platform for Australian species, specifically invertebrates. For undescribed species, it uses a simple nomenclatural system based on unique, successive genus and species numbers derived from the underlying Fauna Portal database. Taxonomic stability is maintained by designating a reference specimen for each undescribed species.

Identification of species is possible through side-by-side comparison of diagnostic images. Image plates are compiled through morphological and geographic filters at family and genus level. The Fauna Portal distribution maps only list specimens that are lodged in publicly accessible collections.

The Fauna Portal is project-based. Images are accessible via ‘Projects’ in the main menu, of which “All Fauna Portal species” includes all species accessible through the website. The current pilot version focuses on two research projects conducted at the Harry Butler Insitute, Murdoch University:

• Australian Orb-weaving Spiders in the family Araneidae (accessible at the family level in the “All Fauna Portal species” project)
• Terrestrial invertebrates of Barrow Island (via the “Barrow Island” project).