Heteroptera: True BugsHeteroptera: True Bugs

•7 infraorders

•85 families

•40,000 described species

Miridae: Plant BugsMiridae: Plant Bugs

• 1,300 valid genera

• 10,000 valid species

• mostly phytophagous and host specific

PBI Target Taxa:PBI Target Taxa:Orthotylinae & PhylinaeOrthotylinae & Phylinae

•486 described genera

•90 new genera

•3905 described species

•1200 new species

Monophyletic; worldwide

Exemplar Orthotylinae & Exemplar Orthotylinae & PhylinaePhylinae

Species Accumulation CurvesSpecies Accumulation Curves

Plant Bug PBIPlant Bug PBIIndividual ParticipantsIndividual Participants

•4 senior scientists

•4 postdoctoral trainees

•2 doctoral trainees

•2 research assistants

•3 undergraduate trainees

• IT support staff

PBI Database GoalsPBI Database Goals

• 650,000 total specimens

• 100,000 specimens from 15 PBI-supported field trips

• 3500 host plant specimens

Acquisition of CollectionsAcquisition of CollectionsTable 1. PRINCIPLE WORLD COLLECTIONS OF ORTHOTYLINAE AND PHYLINAECollection Geographic Coverage No.

specimensNo. Studied

No. databased

American Museum of Natural History World (significant Australian holdings) 150,000 75,000 37,500Australian Museum, Sydney Australia* 58,000 3,000 35,000Bishop Museum, Honolulu Tropical Asia, Pacific Islands 15,000 10,000 7,500California Academy of Sciences World (important Nearctic holdings) 15,000 12,000 5,000Canadian National Collection Nearctic including Mexico 50,000 37,500 25,000Hamburg University Palearctic (important for reference) 6,000 5,700 0Linnavuori Collection, Turku, Finland Middle East, Africa 40,000 36,000 0Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro mostly Neotropical (many types) 2,000 1,980 0Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva Palearctic (no figures available)Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris Europe, Africa, Madagascar 10,000 6,500 0Museum Zoology, LIPI, Bogor Tropical Asia 2,000 0 0Nankai University Insect Collection China 5,000 3,000 0Natuurhistorisch Museum, Leiden Tropical Asia (no figures available)Natural History Museum, London World (historical; many types) 10,000 9,500 0Plant Protection Res. Inst., Pretoria South Africa 3,000 1,500 0Royal Central African Museum Central Africa 2,000 1,000 0Smithsonian Institution World (most Nearctic types) 75,000 50,000 25,000Texas A&M University Mexico, SE USA 25,000 10,000 2,500Zoological Lab., Okayama University mostly Eastern Asia 10,000 3,000 6,000Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg World (premier Palearctic collection) 75,000 60,000 0Zoological Museum, Helsiniki World (historical; some types) 2,000 1,980 0Totals 555,000 327,660 143,500

Appeal for SpecimensAppeal 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:Australian Miridae:changes from 1995--2004changes from 1995--2004

•210 described species: +10%+10%

•1,500 predicted spp.: +750%+750%

•1,400 recorded hosts: +4000%+4000%

•75,000 specimens: +300 %+300 %

South African Collecting and South African Collecting and museum visits, October 2004museum visits, October 2004

• ~15,000 specimens: + 700%+ 700%

• ~250 species: + 150%+ 150%

• ~200 new hosts: + 300%+ 300%

Processing of CollectionsProcessing 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 CollectionsProcessing of Collections

Management of Taxonomic activities distributed by group

• Phylinae: American Museum• Orthotylinae: Australian Museum

Creating Specimen DatabaseCreating Specimen Database

Software Choices•Use off the shelf product•Develop specialized application

Platform Approaches•Browser-based data entry•Open source programs– MySQL Database Engine

•Browser based•Data entry on local machines•Upload to web server•Minimize fields•Maximize efficiency•Multiple Modes

Museum ModeField Mode

Specimen Database ConceptSpecimen Database Concept

Field Mode: Locality DataField Mode: Locality Data

Field Mode: Host DataField Mode: Host Data

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

GeoreferencingGeoreferencing

Is it necessary?

Machine readability

Bar codes

Matrix codes

Alpha-numeric readability

Unique Specimen Unique Specimen IdentificationIdentification

Web Presentation of Web Presentation of Taxonomic InformationTaxonomic Information

• Tracking progress of specimen processing

• Management of host identification and vouchering

• Coordination of data entry and unique specimen identification

• Effective and efficient geocoding

Summary - HurdlesSummary - Hurdles

•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

Summary - AccomplishmentsSummary - Accomplishments

•Sheridan Hewson-Smith

•Steve Thurston

•Other PBI project participants & collaborators

•National Science Foundation

•American Museum of Natural History

•Australian Museum

AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements