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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 Exemplar Orthotylinae & Phylinae Species Accumulation Curves Plant Bug PBI Individual 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 Acquisition of Collections Table 1. PRINCIPLE WORLD COLLECTIONS OF ORTHOTYLINAE AND PHYLINAE Collection American Museum of Natural History Australian Museum, Sydney Bishop Museum, Honolulu California Academy of Sciences Canadian National Collection Hamburg University Linnavuori Collection, Turku, Finland Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris Museum Zoology, LIPI, Bogor Nankai University Insect Collection Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden Natural History Museum, London Plant Protection Res. Inst., Pretoria Royal Central African Museum Smithsonian Institution Texas A&M University Zoological Lab., Okayama University Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg Zoological Museum, Helsiniki Totals Geographic Coverage No. No. No. specimens Studied databased World (significant Australian holdings) 150,000 75,000 37,500 Australia* 58,000 3,000 35,000 Tropical Asia, Pacific Islands 15,000 10,000 7,500 World (important Nearctic holdings) 15,000 12,000 5,000 Nearctic including Mexico 50,000 37,500 25,000 Palearctic (important for reference) 6,000 5,700 0 Middle East, Africa 40,000 36,000 0 mostly Neotropical (many types) 2,000 1,980 0 Palearctic (no figures available) Europe, Africa, Madagascar 10,000 6,500 0 Tropical Asia 2,000 0 0 China 5,000 3,000 0 Tropical Asia (no figures available) World (historical; many types) 10,000 9,500 0 South Africa 3,000 1,500 0 Central Africa 2,000 1,000 0 World (most Nearctic types) 75,000 50,000 25,000 Mexico, SE USA 25,000 10,000 2,500 mostly Eastern Asia 10,000 3,000 6,000 World (premier Palearctic collection) 75,000 60,000 0 World (historical; some types) 2,000 1,980 0 555,000 327,660 143,500 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: [email protected] 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 Field Mode: Locality Data Field Mode: Host Data 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 Web Presentation of Taxonomic Information 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 hostdocumented 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