Art,

I agree that this is possible, but not many books list the genera with a
description, much less the sub-genera level.  As an initial step, we could
start with family listings and descriptions (I've got those ready to go with
the gastropods -- not micros though, sorry).  Then people with some
expertise or interest in a particular family could add genera descriptions
and eventually species descriptions.  There is a wealth of stuff already out
there -- witness the Jacksonville web page with Ranellidae, Personidae, and
the genera Lambis and Busycon (with more added all of the time).  I tried
something like this on a web page but it was limited to 25 pages, so all I
got written was the family Ficidae.  I have since pretty much abandoned the
page until I can set up another with more room.  But if interested it is at:
http://sites.netscape.net/thomasc130/homepage

Maybe COA would want to host the site.  It would be nice to have a central
location.  By the way, Art, I didn't send you an example of my database of
families -- however, if you check out the web page above, it is pretty
close.

Now I have to run.  In my other life of herps (reptiles and amphibians to
the uninitiated) I have a house guest flying in to speak at our annual
banquet.  So I have to put away the shell mess (just got a bunch of
incredible nerite papers from Henk Mienis) and concentrate on snakes and
lizards (and some folks think shell people are bizarre).

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA


>         In "The Wentletrap book", it took about 10 pages to describe all
the
> genera and sub-genera. And we used big type. I'm sure we could even add
> illustrations, the "Type Species", and hold on to the ten pages.
>                 Art
>