A comprehensive insect nomenclature in TaxonWorks: Time to partner and reach new milestones

Insect nomenclature is the foundation of the study of a vast swath of the Earth's biodiversity. Its long, intricate history has been the subject of many legendary entomologists who embraced the role of the Entomological Society of America. The Species File Group, an endowed collective, has emerged as a global leader in the effort to unify the curation of insect nomenclature with 520,857 species and their many names flowing into the leading global aggregator, the Catalogue of Life. They have facilitated the migration, cleaning, and enhancement of some of the largest, longest-running digital catalogs in the world including the Global Lepidoptera Index, Universal Chalcidoidea Database, World Auchenorrhyncha Database, and Orthoptera Species File, these amongst a large number of efforts on smaller and medium sized groups. Our proposal is to explore a relationship between the ESA and the SFG that catalyzes an effort to reach comprehensiveness, one that draws from the strengths of both huge, and, relatively-speaking, tiny, organizations. To start the conversation we propose a path that spans several decades and that involves local-to-global resources, with goals that include seeing our collective efforts fill the gaps in the Catalogue of Life. Key milestones include federating people, processes, technologies, and research on multiple fronts, including leveraging TaxonWorks collaborative curatorial platform, working to a framework that embraces "matching" funding across entities, training and community building, and working to standards that can be leveraged by ESA's community and beyond.