Dec
2009
28.12.2009
New color patterns added on the page variability of elytral color patterns in Coccinellidae. Thanks to Jörg Pageler! Photos of further variants are welcome! Simply send an email to kerbtier.de with the photo(s) attached.
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27.12.2009
After 5 hours of maintenance, kerbtier.de is online again. At the very first sight, there are not too many changes. However, I've improved the CSS stylesheets to work with variable font size and to display the main menu bar in a proper way. In case of any errors, dead links, etc. I'll be happy to receive your feedback.
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14.12.2009
I've just uploaded a new search module, which is - well let's call it ... experimental. You can find it in the menu "Search" under the entry "Search by appearance". The basic idea was that it can be quite tricky to find a species, if the user has no clue in which family to start the search. It would be much better to say: "Well, the beetle was of oval shape, black pronotum, red elytra, black legs and was approx. 5 mm long" and then get pictures displayed which match this description. That's exactly what this module does. To use the module is a little more complicated than the other functions of kerbtier.de. Therefore, I wrote a small manual that can be downloaded as pdf file. Please take a look at it before using the module for the first time. First experiences show that the module is not very well suited for unicolored species, but much better for colorful species - those which the interested nature observes most like will find.

I hope that this new function enables the visitors of kerbtier.de to identify their beetle more quickly and easily than before. If you have any questions, comments or experience any problems or errors, please don't hesitate to contact me via the contact form or via email. I would particularly like to thank Ingrid Altmann and especially Klaas Reißmann, who volunteered as beta testers during the development phase.
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12.12.2009
kerbtier.de just got a new starting page, containing some useful functions sorted in categories. On the left, I've added the page structure as tree. On the right, there is now direct access to the latest news, records etc. Furthermore, there will be a featured species every week on the starting page with some background information. Let's start with tiger beetle Cicindela hybrida. In case of any errors, dead links, etc. I'll be happy to receive your feedback.
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Sep
2009
20.09.2009
New color patterns of Harmonia axyridis added on the page variability of elytral color patterns in Coccinellidae. Thanks to Arp Kruithof, Bernard Fransen and Gerrian Tacoma. Photos of further variants are welcome! Simply send an email to kerbtier.de with the photo(s) attached.
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13.09.2009
I've just uploaded six new beetle records from August and September 2009. Additionally, I've added a new page with selected internet links to beetle sites, which I would like to expand further in the future. It can be accessed by clicking "Links" in the top navigation bar.
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05.09.2009
Today I've uploaded a new topic page introducing the Federal Nature Conservation Act, the Federal Regulation for the Protection of Species and the FFH-Directive. The page is especially aimed at hobby coleopterists, knowing little or nothing about the relevant legislation. Special thanks go to Maik Hausotte, who initially had the idea for the page and contributed major parts of the German text.
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Aug
2009
18.08.2009
I've just uploaded a small summer update with 40 new species from several families. The number of species available on kerbtier.de increases to 2,180. I wish all visitors of kerbtier.de a pleasant stay on my site!
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08.08.2009
Record of Agrilus sinuatus from the river Rhein floodplain near Philippsburg online.
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02.08.2009
Another three new records from the Lampertheim Forest (South Hesse) online.
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Jul
2009
13.07.2009
Another two recent records online...
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08.07.2009
Another 11 new records from 2009 online. Enjoy!
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02.07.2009
I've just uploaded 8 new records; more will be published within a short time.
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Jun
2009
26.06.2009
At the end of the beetle season, I've finally compiled a major update on kerbtier.de. Besides adding 150 new species from many different families, I've also replaced many old photos with new ones in higher resolution. The total number of species available on kerbtier.de has now grown to 2,140. I wish all visitors of kerbtier.de a pleasant stay on my site!
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Feb
2009
23.02.2009
I've just uploaded a glossary of entomological terms. Thanks to Klaas Reißmann, who compiled major parts of the glossary.
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14.02.2009
After two weeks of hard work I've just uploaded some updates and new features. kerbtier.de has become completely bilingual English/German (support of English native speakers to further improve the English pages would be highly appreciated!). Above the banner, I've added a top navigation bar with functions to toggle the language, open the imprint and so on. Furthermore, I've reworked the main menu, which is now implemented as a drop-down menu in CSS (and some JavaScript to for some older browsers).

And there are some new features: I've added a contact form (try the code entry ;-)), a sitemap, and a new section called "Records", where I will publish my beetle discoveries in the near future. With so many changes, I hope that not too many errors sneaked in. In any case, I'll be happy to receive your feedback, via the contact form or directly to my email address (see imprint).
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Jan
2009
27.01.2009
As promised, I've finished my work on the higher-resolution photos. Today I uploaded them on my site, together with some additional novelties:

As can be easily seen, kerbtier.de got a little facelift and also a somewhat improved navigation. The thumbnails in the species overviews can now be clicked to display a 970 x 600-pixel photo of the respective species (JavaScript must be enabled). You can also now directly use the sorting function by clicking the radio buttons, instead of clicking the former "sort" button. Additionally, the user can save her/his preferred sorting mode (cookies must be allowed). And finally, I've implemented something completely new: With the "Compare" function you can directly put up two photos (440 x 712) of user-defined species next to each other. This should facilitate the identification of morphological differences between the selected species.

I wish all of you a pleasant stay on my website. Any feedback can be sent to my email address, which can be found in the imprint.
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04.01.2009
And again, another tiny novelty: If you hover the mouse pointer over a thumbnail in the species overview, the body length (in mm) of the species is displayed as tooltip.
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03.01.2009
I've just uploaded new sorting functions. The families on the main page can now be sorted in systematic or alphabetical order or by number of recorded species (descending). The species overviews within the respective families can now be sorted systematically or alphabetically. Default is "systematic". I hope that these new functions enable the user to locate the desired species faster and easier.
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01.01.2009
I wish all visitors of kerbtier.de a happy and successful New Year 2009!

Some in-house news:
When I switched my site's architecture to SQL, I removed the species fact sheets, as probably some users might have noticed. Unfortunately, I've found out pretty quickly that the effort to put the fact sheets together by far exceeds my possibilities. Even if I prepared one fact sheet per day, it would take about 5 years to cover all 2,000 species on this site. Therefore, I've decided to cancel this project.

In exchange, I'll increase kerbtier.de's "resolution". I'm currently preparing a higher-resolution photo (approx. 900 x 600) for each species, which can be displayed by clicking the thumbnail. It's going to take some time to prepare them all, but I hope to finish this job before February.
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