Data resources

The taxonomic information provided by the World Spider Catalog is used by

Daily Species Exports

Format File Description
CSV species_export_20241121.csv All currently valid species included
Creative Commons License
Species export World Spider Catalog by https://wsc.nmbe.ch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://wsc.nmbe.ch.

Direct links with Life Science Identifiers

Note that the Life Science Identifiers have an altered authority part ("nmbe.ch"). You can continue to use all ObjectIds published in the catalog version 15.0 by N. I. Platnick, except for the changed ObjectIds listed here.

Links with full LSIDs

URL: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/lsid/<LSID>
Example: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/lsid/urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:021946

Links with ObjectId only

URL species: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/speciesLsid/<ObjectId>
URL genus: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/genusLsid/<ObjectId>
URL family: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/familyLsid/<ObjectId>
Example: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/speciesLsid/021946


WSC Taxonomy REST API

The WSC taxonomy webservice provides taxonomical data either for a single taxon via the Life Science Identifier (LSID) or provides LSIDs for updated and new taxa. The REST API can only be used with a valid API key. To get an API key, please register as member of the WSCA, log in and generate an API key within your personal account page.

Single taxon

URL: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/api/lsid/<LSID>?apiKey=<valid API key>
Description: Retrieve taxonomic information for a single taxon via the LSID
Method: GET
Response type: JSON

Parameter Description
LSID Full LSID of the taxon.
apiKey Valid API key is found on your personal WSCA membership account page.
Example

URL:
https://wsc.nmbe.ch/api/lsid/urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:021946?apiKey=xyz

Species sample response:

{
    "taxon":{
        "species":"nava",
        "subspecies":"",
        "author":"(Blackwall, 1841)",
        "taxonRank":"species",
        "status":"VALID",
        "genus":"Hahnia",
        "genusObject":{
            "genus":"Hahnia",
            "author":"C. L. Koch, 1841",
            "genLsid":"urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidergen:01941"
        },
        "family":"Hahniidae",
        "familyObject":{
            "family":"Hahniidae",
            "author":"Bertkau, 1878",
            "famLsid":"urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spiderfam:0041"
        },
        "distribution":"Palearctic",
        "lsid":"urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:021946",
        "referenceObject":{
            "reference":"Blackwall, J. (1841). The difference in the number of eyes with which spiders are provided proposed as the basis of their distribution into tribes; with descriptions of newly discovered species and the characters of a new family and three new genera of spiders. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 18: 601-670.",
            "doi":"",
            "pageDescription":"622"
        }
    }
}

If the called taxon is a synonym or a replaced homonym, a link will be provided to the valid taxon.

Example:
"validTaxon":{"_href":"https:\/\/wsc.nmbe.ch\/api\/lsid\/urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:002177"}
Taxa updates

URL: https://wsc.nmbe.ch/api/updates?type=<value (optional)>&date=<YYYY-MM-DD (optional)>&apiKey=<valid API key>
Description: Retrieve LSIDs of new or changed taxa. If date parameter is not provided, the response will include LSIDs of new or changed taxa of last six months (default)
Method: GET
Response type: JSON, paged (50 items per page)
Navigation: "_links": "self", "next", "previous", "first", "last"

Parameter Description
type (optional) Restrict returned LSIDs for specified taxon type.
Valid values:
  • family
  • genus
  • species
date (optional) Retrieve data sets newer (incl. equal) the specified date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD. If not specified, the default value will be the current date minus 6 months
apiKey Valid API key is found on your personal WSCA membership account page.
Example

URL:
https://wsc.nmbe.ch/api/updates?apiKey=xyz

Sample response:

{
  "updates": [
    "urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:048763",
    "urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:048764",
    ...
    "urn:lsid:nmbe.ch:spidersp:048813"
  ],
  "_links": {
    "self": "https:\/\/wsc.nmbe.ch\/api\/updates?page=1\u0026apiKey=xyz",
    "next": "https:\/\/wsc.nmbe.ch\/api\/updates?page=2\u0026apiKey=xyz",
    "last": "https:\/\/wsc.nmbe.ch\/api\/updates?page=15\u0026apiKey=xyz"
  }
}

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