Its now possible to view and work with a list of species layers for a genus or higher taxon through a OGC compliant desktop tool such as uDIG or ArcGIS.This allows users to render the data for multiple species on a map within a desktop top with some styling options for the layers. Links to WMS server GetCapabilities documents are on species and higher taxon pages. To retrieve a list of species layers, first navigate to a higher taxon e.g. Acacia

    Left panel on species page
    Left panel on species page

    Clicking the “JSON/WMS/RDF” button on the left hand panel will give the following popup which includes a link to a WMS GetCapabilities document.

    This document can then be used in uDIG to retrieve a list of layers available for this higher taxon.

    Species layer listing in uDIG
    Species layer listing in uDIG

    These tools will then allow the rendering of multiple layers.

    Multiple species layers
    Multiple species layers in uDIG

    Individual record information can be retrieved through tool.

    Record information
    Record information

    Below is a screenshot from ArcGIS.

    For more details on the WMS services, there is some documentation here.