Abstract
Here, we describe a new Australian species in journal format and simultaneously open the description in a wiki format on the www.species-id.net. The wiki format will always link to the fixed original journal description of the taxon, however it permits future edits and additions to species' taxonomy and biology. The diving beetle Neobidessodes darwiniensis sp. n. (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae, Bidessini) is described based on a single female, collected in a rest pool of the Harriet Creek in the Darwin Area, Northern Territory. Within Neobidessodes the new species is well characterized by its elongate oval body with rounded sides, short and stout segments of antennae, length of body and dorsal surface coloration. In addition to external morphology, we used mitochondrial cox1 sequence data to support generic assignment and to delineate the new species from other Australian Bidessini including all other known Neobidessodes. Illustrations based on digital images are provided here and as online resources. A modified key is provided. Altogether ten species of the genus are now known worldwide, nine from Australia and one from New Guinea.
Highlights
Many approaches and initiatives to “accelerate” the descriptive taxonomic process have recently been proposed or partially implemented
We suggest that the wikimedia engine provides one of the most powerful tools for routine taxonomic work, with wikipedia providing generic data and wikispecies a taxonomic backbone, i.e. the tree of life
We test an approach where we publish a new species in open-access journal format, and at the same time upload the data to a purpose-buildt wiki, the species ID site, flanked by a wikispecies entry which de facto serves as a "shop window"
Summary
Many approaches and initiatives to “accelerate” the descriptive taxonomic process have recently been proposed or partially implemented. The epigean species of the Australasian genus Neobidessodes Hendrich & Balke, 2009 were recently treated in a comprehensive systematic revision, including morphological and molecular data (Hendrich et al 2009). Despite the fact that the first author studied more than 6000 specimens from his own samples and numerous museum collections (Hendrich et al 2009), the new species described in this publication is known just from the female holotype.
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