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Join us in improving taxonomic coverage and geographic documentation of Miridae plant bugs through the acquisition of collections, processing of specimens, and creating a specimen database.
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Heteroptera: True Bugs • 7 infraorders • 85 families • 40,000 described species
Miridae: Plant Bugs • 1,300 valid genera • 10,000 valid species • mostly phytophagous and host specific
PBI Target Taxa:Orthotylinae & Phylinae Monophyletic; worldwide • 486 described genera • 90 new genera • 3905 described species • 1200 new species
Plant Bug PBIIndividual Participants • 4 senior scientists • 4 postdoctoral trainees • 2 doctoral trainees • 2 research assistants • 3 undergraduate trainees • IT support staff
PBI Database Goals • 650,000 total specimens • 100,000 specimens from 15 PBI-supported field trips • 3500 host plant specimens
Appeal for Specimens • To improve taxonomic coverage • To improve geographic coverage • To improve host documentation • Please contact me during the conference or via email at: schuh@amnh.org
Australian Miridae:changes from 1995--2004 • 210 described species: +10% • 1,500 predicted spp.: +750% • 1,400 recorded hosts: +4000% • 75,000 specimens: +300 %
South African Collecting and museum visits, October 2004 • ~15,000 specimens: + 700% • ~250 species: + 150% • ~200 new hosts: + 300%
Processing of Collections • Insects • Mounting & labeling centralized in AMNH New York • Rough sorting centralized in AMNH • Host plants • Vouchers identified by specialists • Vouchers deposited in recognized herbaria
Processing of Collections • Management of Taxonomic activities distributed by group • Phylinae: American Museum • Orthotylinae: Australian Museum
Creating Specimen Database • Software Choices • Use off the shelf product • Develop specialized application • Platform Approaches • Browser-based data entry • Open source programs • – MySQL Database Engine
Specimen Database Concept • Browser based • Data entry on local machines • Upload to web server • Minimize fields • Maximize efficiency • Multiple Modes • Museum Mode • Field Mode
Georeferencing • GEOLocate • Stand alone program • Easy to use • Individual & batch processing • Manual correction capability • Limitations • – parsing of locality names • – still under development • http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/default.aspx
Unique Specimen Identification • Is it necessary? • Machine readability • Bar codes • Matrix codes • Alpha-numeric readability
Summary - Hurdles • Tracking progress of specimen processing • Management of host identification and vouchering • Coordination of data entry and unique specimen identification • Effective and efficient geocoding
Summary - Accomplishments • 20 % increase in total specimens • 20 % increase in known diversity • increase in geographic coverage • dramatic increase in host- documented specimens • dramatic increase in host vouchers
Acknowledgements • Sheridan Hewson-Smith • Steve Thurston • Other PBI project participants & collaborators • National Science Foundation • American Museum of Natural History • Australian Museum