The purpose of the proposed fellowship is to develop an open-access web-based taxonomic information facility for one of the most speciose and highly endemic, thus conservation-relevant insect groups for a whole country, the beetles of Mauritius. This web facility would allow species identification and also make available baseline data on species distribution, economic importance and literature resources. This will transform the scientific results of the current Darwin project “Rediscovering the neglected insects of the Mascarenes – building in-country capacity” into a sustainable resource for local and international researchers and conservationists. It will be the first web resource of a complete illustrated beetle fauna at country level on an up-to-date taxonomic basis and might serve as a model case for similar, larger-scale projects.
