A variety of information on plant and animal groups can be reached from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refuge page: http://refuges.fws.gov/siteindex.html#S. Click "S" to go to Species Accounts, then the taxonomic group of interest. The information listed is from multiple locations within the Service, including the Division of Endangered Species. Groups represented as of early 2001 were plants, insects, crustaceans, fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
An alternative access to much of this information is via the Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange managed at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. From that site, one can click on partner states (CA, CO, KY, MD, MO, NM, PA, TN, UT, VA, WV) or a choice of several other databases. The web site for the Exchange is http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/WWW/nframes/species.htm.
The Exchange accesses:
"Endangered Species Information System" (ESIS) with species accounts on 436 threatened and endangered plants and animals (through 1987) from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Marine and Coastal Species Information System" (MACSIS) also holds species accounts on
450 vertebrates and invertebrates. These have been prepared for the Corps of Engineers by the Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange.
The following is a list of other organizations and agencies hosting Web sites with species accounts not otherwise listed in this section of EMRIS:
American Zoo and Aquarium Association - Species Survival Plan
Butterflies of North America--Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center--USGS
Protected Marine Species Resources
Species at risk in the Gulf of Mexico
Texas Natural History Collections - Fish Division (fish of North America)
University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web
US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Endangered Species
US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of Refuges
National Audubon Society Electronic Nature Guides
Association for Biodiversity Information
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publishes an Endangered Species Bulletin six times a year. Subscriptions are free and described on the page http://endangered.fws.gov/bulinfo.html. Many past issues can be read on-line. Species and their habitats are addressed.