dustymc
commented
8 months ago This feels overloaded as a way to discuss specific terms, but it's a handy way to daylight and document a fundamental aspect of this. The two possibilities which have been suggested are
- Limit this to few more-general terms ("juvenile") and use age to assert details ('1st instar').
- Allow probably-eventually thousands of specific terms ("1st instar") here, help find them them by adding search terms ("juvenile").
I can see usability benefits to either approach. The biggest (assuming we can do a good job with search terms) is probably for data entry - they may eventually be required to pick from at least 60 instars, for example, which will very likely lead to entry errors. (But maybe fewer than attempting a free-text assertion would create.)
Allowing collections to select specific terms will somewhat mitigate this - an insect collection that doesn't have any 6+ instar data can exclude those ~55 terms while still including the ~5 they actually use, a different insect collection can pick a different set of assertable terms.
This also suggests a pattern for the term - surely the "most everything" model will eventually lead to lots of "1st ....." terms, so "instar 1" rather than '1st instar' might be more accessible. (Or confusing: this is a consideration, not a suggestion - and it's part of why I think approving specific terms here, or en masse in general, would be a mistake).
I believe @ebraker likes the many-terms approach, and my thoughts are certainly ambivalent enough to hop on that bandwagon.
@Jegelewicz @ccicero @ebraker @Nicole-Ridgwell-NMMNHS thoughts/elaborations/whatever?
I believe GBIF has more or less gone the other way; their examples include relatively few "data" terms and lots of 'metadata' terms within them. That is,
larvae [lang=en, source=]
tadpole [lang=en, source=]
polliwog [lang=en, source=]
pollywog [lang=en, source=]
polliwig [lang=en, source=]
polewig [lang=en, source=]
polwig [lang=en, source=]
planula [lang=en, source=]
nauplius [lang=en, source=]
zoea [lang=en, source=]
nymph [lang=en, source=]
caterpillar [lang=en, source=]
grub [lang=en, source=]
maggot [lang=en, source=]
wriggler [lang=en, source=]
trochophore [lang=en, source=]
veliger [lang=en, source=]
glochidium [lang=en, source=]
ammocoete [lang=en, source=]
leptocephalus [lang=en, source=]
bipinnaria [lang=en, source=]
caterpillar [lang=en, source=]
grub [lang=en, source=]
maggot [lang=en, source=] are all "search terms" for "larva." (And so if we're going in the opposite direction, maybe their definitions aren't great for us to include?)
Jegelewicz
auzwan
ewommack
Initial Request
Goal
Describe what you're trying to accomplish. This is the only necessary step to start this process. The Committee is available to assist with all other steps. Please clearly indicate any uncertainty or desired guidance if you proceed beyond this step.
Place terms that are currently in age class in the new life stage code table.
Context
Describe why this new value is necessary and existing values are not.
See https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yv3Lx6DtSdmh0P1cSIG6zW-DnYI6VDJpOkFcgQL6F8o/edit#gid=211205961
Table
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https://arctos.database.museum/info/ctDocumentation.cfm?table=ctlife_stage
Proposed Value
Proposed new value. This should be clear and compatible with similar values in the relevant table and across Arctos.
age class term -- adult embryo larva pupa juvenile subadult 1st instar 2nd instar 3rd instar 4th instar 5th instar
Proposed Definition
Clear, complete, non-collection-type-specific functional definition of the value. Avoid discipline-specific terminology if possible, include parenthetically if unavoidable.
Collection type
_Some code tables contain collection-type-specific values.
collection_cdemay be found from https://arctos.database.museum/home.cfm_Attribute Extras
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Approval
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