Most of the pages in Singing Insects of North America [SINA] are either taxa pages (for example, species pages, genus pages, subfamily pages, and family pages) or image pages. Image pages display the "regular" version of an image (see Image views), describe the image, and give its source. They are usually accessed from thumbnails of the image on a taxon page. Other types of pages are pictorial key pages, checklist pages (accessed from "List of species" buttons), and general information pages (such as this one).
SINA has dark-green buttons and gold buttons that facilitate rapid movement to and from every part of the site. The dark-green buttons, at the top of most pages, take the user to the major divisions of SINA. The gold buttons, at the bottom of species pages and at the top of most image pages, are for local moves. The text on each button identifies its action. "Next Species" and "Previous Species" buttons move the user from species to species in the same (alphabetical) order as in the checklists. "Next Image" and "Previous Image" buttons move the user among images of a species in the same sequence as they occur in thumbnail views on a taxon page.
Most images can be viewed in three sizes: thumbnail (128 pixels wide or less), regular (usually 640 pixels wide), and jumbo (usually 1280 pixels wide). To move up the scale of magnification, click on the image. To move down from a jumbo view, use the Back function of your browser. To move from a regular view, use the appropriate local navigation button.
Most links on this site are internal—that is, they go to items that are posted as part of SINA. Links that go to items that are not part of SINA are identified by the text for the link being a URL. For example, here is an external link to the online version of the Orthoptera Species File: http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org . And here is an internal one to How to use SINA.
All references in SINA are now listed both in a union list and in at least one subject-specific list of references. The subject-specific lists are on the pages for particular SINA subjects, usually subfamilies or genera. This places the most relevant references for these subjects in a place where they can be browsed efficiently. The union list is primarily to provide an efficient means to determine whether a known reference is available in full text on this site. More than 250 of the more than 650 listed references are so available, usually in the form of PDF files made by scanning articles or reprints.
Citations to literature in the text of SINA are made by the name-year system (e.g., Walker 1974). Each in-text citation is linked, as in the example just given, to an entry in a list of references. Each entry specifies the item of literature in enough detail to permit its retrieval from a library that holds it. In some cases the entry is linked to the full text of the item in PDF format.
The PDF document "Coding system for SINA files" explains how SINA's more than 10,000 files are named.