A work of this size and complexity will have many errors and discrepancies. Some discrepancies can be anticipated, and the more likely of two or more choices can be identified. For discrepancies in dates, the dates of publication given in the references section are more accurate than corresponding dates elsewhere in the work. Many problems remain, however. For example, a number of Steindachner papers appeared in 3 places. While in Vienna an effort was made to determine the order of publication. This information has been used in Part I but not fully in Part II of the Catalog [resulting in discrepancies]. The spelling, authorship and date of type species in the ‘Genera’ section may differ from the information in the ‘Species’ section; the information in the ‘Species’ section is more accurate. The taxa in a classification (Parts III and IV of the Catalog) were electronically prepared, and the taxa, authors and dates should agree fully with the information in the respective alphabetically-arranged sections. The short-version citation before the reference number was electronically entered in the alphabetically-arranged ‘Genera’ section, but in the ‘Species’ section, entry of the short version citation was a two-step process, and some may differ from information in the references section. The reference number associated with an original description was electronically assigned, and these should all be in agreement, but some reference numbers in the status portions may involve typographical errors. The family/subfamily assignment was done electronically, so the family/subfamily at the end of the alphabetically-arranged section should be in agreement with the placement of taxa in the classification. Because of the way we entered status references using ‘function’ keys, the page on which the author treated the taxon may be in error by one or more pages, but the reference number should be accurate. Museum collection abbreviations are usually used in taxonomic papers to abbreviate the name of the repository containing specimens, but these changes and many new ones have been introduced; there are some discrepancies in our use of abbreviations, and some may appear in our list of abbreviations and some may not.

William N. Eschmeyer