The total number of references in the present volume is 5020. They are listed in alphabetic order by the author and then chronologically within each author. The references cover all primary descriptions of the genus-group and species-group names listed in the Catalogue, including unavailable and infrasubspecific names and works supporting the New Acts and other statements published in the present volume. Bibliographical references are not provided for the family-group names, designation of type-species, and any secondary nomenclatural and taxonomic acts.

Names of all authors are given for each reference. Names published in two or more alternative spellings that seem to be equally correct, are spelled according to Schmitt et al. (1998). In such cases the alternative spelling follows the original one in brackets. The original name is used for authors who subsequently adopted additional names, or honorary epithets (e.g., A. Semenov, and not A. Semenov-Tian-Shanskiy). Laporte de Castelnau is referred to as Laporte in recent major works and this is used in the present Catalogue. Jan Bechyně (1920–1973), after his escape from former Czechoslovakia to Germany in 1948, changed his name to Bechyné, which he used consistently for the rest of his life. Because the variant Bechyné significantly predominates in the Chrysomelidae literature, we also use it in the current Catalogue. The name of Georgiy Georgievich Jacobson appears through the literature in several variants. In his publications using Latin alphabet he is consistently spelled as “Jacobson” (except the years 1892–1894 when his name was written as “Jacobsohn”). The Cyrillic alternative is the phonetic transcription always written as “Jakobson”, which was used in the previous Edition. In the present Edition we use the spelling Jacobson, which is also the most widely used one. Initials are given for all authors, even if they are missing in the original publication.

Titles of non periodical publications are given in full, i.e. not abbreviated form, with subtitles, as they originally appeared. Titles given in Cyrillic are transliterated and followed by either original translation in parentheses or editorial one in square brackets if no translation was available from the original publication. Titles of periodicals are given in italics in full, only the articles at the beginning of the title were left out. The names or numbers of series are listed as a part of the title. The number of each volume is given in bold and is followed by the respective issue number in parentheses when available. When the year of the volume differs from the actual date of publication, it is given in square brackets after the volume. If periodicals have no volume number, the year of the volume is given in boldface instead. Unnumbered pages are indicated in square brackets. All references are supplemented by the earliest and most accurate date of publication and the source. See the next chapter on Dating of publications for further details.

The Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France was published from 1873 to 1894, in addition to the well-known quarterly version, also in a bi-mensuel version “Bulletin Bimensuel”. The publication of the bi-mensuel version preceded the quarterly one and the paginations of the two versions are not identical (for details see Evenhuis 2002). All taxa and references in the Catalogue strictly follow the bi-mensuel version, with the exception of Fairmaire (1878), which was published only in the quarterly version. Also the title of Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France changed almost continuously for more than 60 years, appearing usually as Bulletin des séances, Bulletin trimestriel or Bulletin entomologique. In addition, the first numbered volume, 37, was published 100 years after the creation of the Annales and the Bulletin of the French Entomological Society in 1832. To avoid confusion, this periodical is referred to as Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France, and, from 1832 to 1931, is identified by the year in which it was published. From the year 1932 onwards the volume number is given.