The Fruit Fly Biosystematic Information Data Base

Abstract

Biosystematic information is all data that may be useful to man about organisms, such as what is it, what is it called, what does it look like, where does it occur, what does it do, when does it do it, and what does all this mean to me (= economic importance). Biosystematic information is organized by names, arranged in a hierarchical classification based on shared (synapomorphic) similarities. Hence, biosystematic information can be obtained with a name, a species, or names of associated objects. Names are obtained by identifications, and identifications are made by matching attributes of unknown with known organisms. While that is all a logical sequence, what is reality? In reality, most users obtain biosystematic information merely by asking systematists for it!