Using Species Bank

Records by phylum: A listing of all Phylums and the next lower taxonomic rank for all records loaded to date. From this page links are given to the each of the Phylum record lists. These pages display for a particular phylum all the available records for that phylum, sorted alphabetically by Family and Scientific name.

The main groups of species included so far are: Spiders, Crustaceans, Corals and Sea Anemones, Sea Stars, Sea Urchins, Bivalves, Squid, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Sea Snails, Limpets, Cones, Chitons and some Flowering Plants.

Searching: You can search Species Bank using the Easy Search; the Advanced Search, which provides more search options; or by Browsing, which displays all groups in the database, from highest to lowest taxa.

Easy Search: This will search only the common and scientific name fields of Species Bank (to search other fields, such as 'ecology & lifestyle' or 'topics', use the Advanced Search). Enter all or part of the name you seek in small or capital letters. The search term will match any part of the species name, not just at the beginning of the word. A combination of two search terms, separated by a space, looks for a matching genus and species, for example, the search term 'mel' will return many matching species names, whereas 'mel lit' will return fewer results, for example 'Ameloctopus litoralis (Octopodidae)'.

Advanced Search: You may use advanced search in a variety of ways. It allows some control over the format of the display of each selected species. You can also select the maximum number of species returned per page (see Display Settings).

In an exact search (which is the default unless you select a fuzzy search), the programme searches for your search term anywhere in the common and scientific names. Thus searching for 'ant' would return several results, including 'Giant Squid' and 'East Indian Sandalwood, Santalum album'.
A fuzzy search can be applied to the common or scientific name, but is slower to execute, particularly if it is applied to both common and scientific names. It will return all the species that sound like your search term. Thus a common name fuzzy search for 'hair' will retrieve records including, 'Hairy Stone Crab', 'Hairy Triton or Whelk' and 'Little Sea Hare'. If a fuzzy search is specified for just the common name, then an exact search can also be applied to the scientific name, and vice versa. The fuzzy search is not very discriminating in its matches.
You can search for a particular species using its name, or other descriptive text associated with it by selecting from the drop-down menu which includes, 'features', 'distribution', 'ecology & lifestyle', 'threats', 'topics' or 'sponsors' or to select from all these descriptive categories choose 'all fields except name'.
Up to three criteria can be used. These may be combined together using the AND (required) or OR (either) operators. For example, 1. Search for 'Crab' (in common or scientific name) AND 'intertidal' (in all fields except name) to yield several results; 2. Search for 'Crab' (in common or scientific name) OR 'Octopus' (in common or scientific name) 'AND 'intertidal' (in all fields except name) to yield even more results, including those found in example 1.
You can restrict your search to particular States or the Northern Territory (NT) by selecting (clicking on) the check boxes for those regions you wish to include. The 'Islands' checkbox includes Lord Howe Island, Macquarie Island and Christmas Island. King Island, Flinders Island and other Bass Strait Islands are included with Tasmania, Melville Island is part of Northern Territory, Kangaroo Island is in SA, Rottnest Island is in WA and so on. You may enter part of a common or scientific name, as well as keywords from other parts of the description. A name search checks both common and scientific names (genus and species).
Sometimes a search brings up unexpected results. For example, a search for 'spotted' returns both plant and animal common names. Unwanted plant results can be excluded by adding a family name or a high level group name such as 'animal' as a second search term. Note searching via the 'family or higher group' uses only the common name terms and not the scientific family name or other higher level scientific names. Use the Browse Database to become familiar with the higher level terms.

Browsing: You can explore the whole database, group by group, from the highest level, Kingdom, down to individual species. For example, choose the Kingdom that you are interested in (e.g., plants or animals), and work down through the higher orders which may include, Phylum, Subphylum, Class, Order, Superfamily and Family to find what species are listed.

You can return to any part of the hierarchy by clicking on a selected group; double clicking on a family name will return all species in that family held in the database.

Display settings: You can choose the maximum number of retrieved species to display on each page. However, each page requires a new search of the database, so it is generally more efficient to choose a larger number of species, requiring fewer new searches. The standard species description shows all associated text and thumbnail images, and icons representing other images and available multi-media.

You can limit the detail displayed for each species by selecting 'Only Distribution Maps' or 'Only Related Images'.

Results: After searching or browsing, a list of species that match your criteria are displayed. Select the one you are interested in to view the complete description of the species.

Each description comprises distribution maps and images along with descriptions of Features, Distribution, Ecology and Lifestyle, Human Interaction and Threats, Further Reading and, in some cases, there are links to general topics which provide additional information relevant to all the species that link to it. For some species, additional images and audio and video are also available for viewing or playing by clicking on the thumbnail image or link.