1. Xper²: new features for an improved flexibility Visotheary Ung, Florian Causse, Thomas Burguière and Régine Vignes-Lebbe Contact: visotheary.riviere-ung@snv.jussieu.fr Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements UMR 7207 CNRS - MNHN - UPMC Equipe “Paléobiodiversité des lignées et communautés animales et végétales” References ¹Diep Thi, M.H., Vignes-Lebbe, R., Nguyen H.P., Nguyen Thi B. L., 2010. Indochinese Bamboos: Biodiversity Informatics to assist the identification of « vernacular taxa ». Pp. 207-211 in: Nimis P.L. & Vignes-Lebbe R. (ed.): Tools for identifying Biodiversity: Progress and Problems. ISBN 978-88-8303-295-0. ² Kerner A., Vignes-Lebbe R. & Debrenne F. (2011).- Computer-aided identification of the Archaeocyatha genera now available online.- Carnets de Géologie / Notebooks on Geology, Brest, Letter 2011/02 (CG2011_L02), p. 99-102. ³ Mathieu, B., Cêtre-Sossah C., Garros, C., Chavernac D., Balenghien T., Vignes-Lebbe R., Ung V., Candolfi E., Delécolle J.C., 2010. IIKC, an Interactive Identification Key for female Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from the West Paleartic region. Pp. 201-205 in: Nimis P.L. & Vignes-Lebbe R. (ed.): Tools for identifying Biodiversity: Progress and Problems. ISBN 978-88-8303-295-0. ⁴ Gaubert, P. Chalubert A., Dubus, G. An Interactive Identification key for genets and oyans (Carnivora, Viverridae, Genettinae, Genetta spp. and Poiana spp.) using Xper². Zootaxa 1717: 39-50. Descriptive data management Analysis Outputs Interactive Identification Key Webservices Floras and Faunas Epidemiologic monitoring Taxonomy and phylogeny Citizen science List of characters Items edition module The knowledge base may be exported in many formats: −HTML −SDD −NEXUS Xper² is a versatile management system for storage, edition, analysis and on-line distribution of descriptive data. It dynamically creates interactive keys for identifying specimens. Xper² does not require any special computer skills. It is a powerful program with a user-friendly and intuitive interface aimed at professional taxonomists as well as neophyte naturalists who merely want to identify specimens using a ready-made application. Xper² is a powerful tool for editing and managing descriptive data. Download for free your Windows, Mac or Linux version in French, English, Spanish, Chinese or Portuguese at: http://www.infosyslab.fr Our mailing-list facility provides users with full support. Publish and distribute your work on CD or on-line. Several tools are available in order to facilitate the daily work of its users: −The checkbase function prevents from inconsistencies −The summary function can be used to have an overview at a glance of the whole knowledge base −Items are easily compared with a matrix… −Management of both categorical and numerical data −Merging of desciptors and/or items… Descriptors edition module Crimper bamboo Bamboo (Bambusoides – Gramineae) is one of the most important natural resource in South East Asia. In the area of SEP program « Bamboos » (2008-2010), the final objective is to update the bamboo flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and to publish an e-flora including free access keys, digital images and information about the traditional and economic use of bamboos. During field trips in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodgia, samples, pictures and morphological description sheets were collected in various locations and previously assigned to the local vernacular names. (Diep Thi et al, 2010¹) In this context of climate change, coral reefs suffer from human activity (pollution, damages…) and preservation of natural sites became urgently a necessity. http://www.ecobambou-phuan.org/projet-sep-bambous-dindochine.html Archeaocyatha, as Cambrian indicators, have a key role for paleontologues. They were the first metazoans able to build bioconstructions. Hence, in order to fill the existing gap regarding their determination, a knowledge base has been created and is available on-line (Kerner et al., 2011²) http://www.infosyslab.fr/archaeocyatha This work was undertaken as part of a research program conducted by Philippe Gaubert (IRD/ MNHN, Paris - France) in collaboration with 13 international museums. This tool promotes the establishment of a network of field collaborators that will contribute to the regularly updated survey of the distribution ranges of these species in Africa. (Gaubert et al, 2009 ⁴ ) http://www.infosyslab.fr/genettes/web/index.html.en http://coraux.univ-reunion.fr In the ViBRANT project (http://vbrant.eu) we are developping a webservice dedicated to the generation of identification keys on the fly. http://www.identificationkey.fr/ This functionnality is available as a standalone module via a Java applet easily accessible on the web. It is externalised, as well, through an identification key generation webservice within the ViBRANT project. −Traceability of sources (links, definition…) −Management of pictures via URLs In 2006, bluetongue virus (BTV) outbreaks appeared surprisingly in northern Europe and widely affected most of the European countries. Correct identification of Culicoides species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae), known as BTV vectors, is a key component of all studies intending to understand vector dynamics and to develop vector control strategies (Mathieu et al, 2010³)