FORMAT: Pages will be notebook size (8 1/2 x 11 inches), ready for addition to ring-binders, although most sets of species pages will be issued in an appropriate group as a booklet for a family, subfamily, tribe, or genus.
CONTENT: Each species sheet will cover the basic information on a species, such as scientific and common names, synonymy, checklist numbers, diagnosis, wingspan, range (including maps), subspecies, genitalia, flight period, habitat, hosts, immature stages, biology, notes, and references. Many species in the world, particularly in tropical regions, are little known, so at a minimum each LSDS will have what data is known, plus a figure of the adult (this may sometimes only be the unique holotype!).
CODES: The LSDS pages will be integrated with catalog numbers for the faunal regions. Eventually, each region will have accompanying checklists and Atlas series, such as the Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. The regions will have codes plus the catalog number for each species, thus NA for Nearctic, NL for Neotropical, P for Palearctic, E for Ethiopian, O for Oriental, and A for Australian. Any sub-level catalog will have added letters, like OT for Lepidoptera of Taiwan. This LSDS numbering system will provide a code to find species in catalogs, thus a species may be NA-84-3, which would represent species 3 in family 84 in the North American catalog (a few species would have multiple codes if occcuring in more than one faunal region).
PUBLICATION: The administrator of the LSDS system is the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera. ATL also publishes the series and catalogs involved. Current active series are noted on the Series pages from the Home Page menu.
Series Editor: Dr. J. B. Heppner (Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gainesville, FL)