1. Earthworm Collections of the World Emma SHERLOCK, Laurence LIVERMORE & Ben SCOTT Natural History Museum London, Dept of Life Sciences Abstract A website has been created by the Natural History Museum, London, bringing together Earthworm Collections data from around the world. The creators of the site encourage custodians of these collections to share their collection catalogue data. This site will: Enable missing type specimens to be located Encourage access and utilisation of collections, especially those less well known Produce initial distribution maps for earthworm species Introduction The site provides a central hub for researchers and students to locate earthworm collections and specimens, along with useful information on the various earthworm families and species. Website Platform The earthworms site has been developed using Scratchpads: a virtual research environment for taxonomic and biodiversity-related data. Scratchpads provide you and your research community a space to work on the web, with over 400 communities ranging from Acari to Zingiberaceae. They are free to use, open source and actively developed at The Natural History Museum, London. Contributors & Acknowledgements We have received collections records from The Smithsonian Institution Washington, Natural History Museum, London and Hungarian Natural History Museum. Each contributor will have an information page on the site containing curatorial contact details and detailed information about the associated collections. We would like to acknowledge: Bill Moser, Smithsonian Institute Washington; Tim Conyers NHM London; and a large thank you to Professor C. Csuzdi for the donation of records and the base taxonomy for the site. Figure 1 - The front page of the Site The tabs at the top allow access to the various sections of the site. Each contributing institution will have an area to promote their collection and Institution. Figure 2 – Example species page This shows the taxonomy, references, photographs, maps and any addition species information and descriptions which have been uploaded. Our Aims Collate earthworm specimen data from around the world, including the smaller collections, to highlight and encourage collections use Locate ‘missing‘ type specimens for scientific study Provide useful data for researchers and students, including: Verified species images (photographs and illustrations) Comprenhensive glossary of earthworm anatomy and terminology Scanned and English translations of hard to find original species descriptions (subject to copyright) Map the submitted data so global extents of collections can be assessed and strengths of collections highlighted Generate distribution maps for species based on specimen records http://earthworms.myspecies.info How to contribute your Collection records Please contribute collection records to emmas@nhm.ac.ukemmas@nhm.ac.uk We would be grateful if the information is in an Excel spread sheet with the data split between well- labelled columns. All specimen information you have is of interest to us!