ABOUT COLLECTION ABBREVIATIONS IN THE

Information is presented in the species database about the location of type specimens, i.e., museums which contain (or believe they contain) the type specimens for a given species.

Many abbreviations used for specimen collections in the species database are standard ones usually cited in systematic papers on fishes; some are summarized in Leviton et al. (1985). Some have changed, such as ZIL, for Zoological Institute St. Petersburg, with the change in name of the city, and many abbreviations have been added or modified since Leviton et al. In other cases, more than one abbreviation may be in current use for a collection. There are over 400 fish collections containing type specimens. If an abbreviation occurs in the species database and does not appear in our list of abbreviations, then you are directed to the original literature source. Also, some collections may appear under more than one abbreviation.

The list below reflects abbreviations used in the On-Line version of the Catalog, not the printed version of 1998. Please note this is work in progress and the current status of some abbreviations has not been determined. Please send comments and corrections to .