Wild cards (* or %) can be added to search terms to expand the number of records selected. (Note that a wild card is automatically added to the above Find taxa field but not to fields on other tabs.) For example, to find all names ending with "australis" enter "*australis" or "%australis" (without the quote marks). To find all taxa that start with "c" or "C" and end with "australis" enter "c*australis" (without the quote marks). To find all species of Colobostruma that start with "a" enter "Colobostruma a" (because a wild card is automatically added to the end). Note that when wild cards are used the auto-suggest list (which appears under the Find taxa box) may take a few seconds to appear - please be patient.

Once all search terms have been entered select the Search Summary tab to see how your search is being interpreted. This will include terms entered on all tabs and the region selected using the map.

The Find taxa field can also be used to specify any number of Darwin Core fields (as listed below). To specify these fields, enter the name of the field followed by the search term in square brackets. For example, to find taxa in the family "formicidae" where the genus starts with "e" enter "family[formicidae] genus[e*]".

The Darwin Core fields are: InstitutionCode, CollectionCode, CatalogNumber, ScientificName, BasisOfRecord, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Subspecies, ScientificNameAuthor, IdentifiedBy, YearIdentified, MonthIdentified, DayIdentified, TypeStatus, CollectorNumber, FieldNumber, Collector, YearCollected, MonthCollected, DayCollected, JulianDay, TimeOfDay, ContinentOcean, Country, StateProvince, County, Locality, Longitude, Latitude, CoordinatePrecision, MinimumElevation, MaximumElevation, MinimumDepth, MaximumDepth, Sex, PreparationType, IndividualCount, PreviousCatalogNumber, RelationshipType, RelatedCatalogItem, Notes.