Data

Information pertinent to ongoing and completed projects will occasionally be presented here.  However, my current efforts are being directed to the following projects involving data associated with the INHS Annelida Collection:

  • Updating the INHS Annelida Collection database, which includes the vetting and entry of historical collection locality information, and metadata associated with identified specimens from historical and recent collections—for both slide-mounted specimens and those stored in ethanol in vials, jars, and tubes.
  • Continuing the collections profiling exercise, following the protocols first established by colleagues Bill Moser and Cheryl Bright (National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC) for their Annelida Collection.  Information recorded during the profiling exercise is integrated with the INHS Annelida Collection database. I acknowledge here the invaluable technical assistance from V.N. Block, K.L.Moss, and K.E. Conatser during the databasing of specimen records and assessing the health of the dry and wet collections (specimens permanently mounted on slides and those stored in ethanol in vials, jars, and tubes).  Perennial advice and design assistance from, and migration of information from a flat field database to a relational database by long time INHS entomologist Gail Kampmeier has greatly improved the  organization of the specimens, field records, and accessibility of information as we continue the collections profiling project.  I also extend my appreciation to INHS administrators for their continued support for this project.
  • Updating (and correcting errata) in Reynolds & Wetzel (2023) – the Second Edition of Nomenclatura Oligochaetologica – a catalogue of names, descriptions, and type specimens of the Oligochaeta (global focus).  This web-based publication is updated as new taxa are described.
  • Completing an online, searchable database for specimens held in the INHS Annelida Collection, now approximately 350,000 specimens in size, representing over 7,000 lots.
  • Serving pertinent information in the INHS Annelida Collection through the Darwin Core Archive Portal project (Symbiota).

    [page update: 09dec2021; 09Oct2022; 01Jan2023; mjw]