Interactive web-taxonomy for the Araceae: www.cate-araceae.org

CATE (Creating a Taxonomic E-science) is a pilot project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to test a model of internet taxonomy which aims to construct and maintain online a full descriptive taxonomic revision as a collective enterprise carried out by the specialist taxonomic community. The software application includes the functionality to allow taxonomists to make contributions and proposals for change that are passed for peer review to an editorial and moderating body drawn from the taxonomic community. The model is being tested on the Hawkmoths (Sphingidae) and Aroid (Araceae) families. The paper describes the aims of the project and current progress on the Araceae e-revision.