Spiders in Fauna Europaea: dual use of the database

Abstract

Fauna Europaea is an initiative set up and funded by the European Commission. The actual work started in 1999 with the establishment of a Central Bureau and the organization of the work load. The goal was to set up a database of published distribution records of all valid terrestrial and freshwater animal species, including synonyms. All European countries as politically defined (European parts of Russia, satellite archipelagos of Spain and Portugal) were included: EU and non-EU, and smaller member-states such as Monaco, the Vatican, and Andorra. Registration of species distributions was expected to be carried out at country level (or parts of countries for the larger countries, such as European Russia, or with known distribution barriers or zoogeographical districts within the country, such as Greece, Portugal, and Spain). The site (Fauna EuropaEa 2011) thus aims to inform the user about the presence or absence of a given species in the selected country or region. Literature sources should also be provided. This goal was achieved by bringing together one or more specialists for each taxonomic group to serve as group-coordinators. The Fauna Europaea website mentions more than 500 experts, including the 63 group-coordinators. The website was launched in 2004.