search

ArctosDB / documentation-wiki

Arctos Documentation and How-To Guides
https://handbook.arctosdb.org
GNU General Public License v3.0
13 stars 13 forks source link

How to deal with unsorted insect specimens #97

Open mbprondzinski opened 5 years ago

mbprondzinski commented 5 years ago

Another question for you: If I have an accession that includes 10 vials of unsorted insects in lots, do I have to assign a catalog number to each of those 10 vials? Can I retain them simply as "lot of 20 insects; lot of 32 insects; lot of 'many insects'" with just the accession number as an identifier, or even a collector #, and only assign the catalog numbers after they've been sorted?

Thanks. MB

dustymc commented 5 years ago

do I have to assign a catalog number to each of those 10 vials?

No, cataloged items - the things that get catalog numbers - are explicitly "something someone felt like cataloging for some reason."

assign the catalog numbers after they've been sorted

With this included, I think it's a completely defensible approach. "5 gallons of things that showed up at the light trap" should never be cited, but it can certainly be loaned and you can work with the loan-ee to get good identifiers for the individuals they want to use/cite.

http://arctos.database.museum/info/ctDocumentation.cfm?table=CTID_REFERENCES&field=same%20lot%20as exists to keep that all linked together.

Jegelewicz commented 5 years ago

If I have an accession that includes 10 vials of unsorted insects in lots, do I have to assign a catalog number to each of those 10 vials?

That depends. Did they all come from the exact same locality at the same time? Were they collected by the same person? Do you have any kind of taxonomic identification for any of them?

If they are from a single collecting event, then I would assign one catalog number to all 10 vials (is there one insect in each vial?) and use the part name "whole organism" with whatever preservation fluid they are in or dry if that's how they are preserved and lot count of "10". If they are not identified and the best you can do is "Insecta", that is fine for an identification.

Can I retain them simply as "lot of 20 insects; lot of 32 insects; lot of 'many insects'" with just the accession number as an identifier, or even a collector #, and only assign the catalog numbers after they've been sorted?

Add any other identifiers that you have to the catalog record as they generally come in handy in the future. You don't need to add an accession number as the catalog number should be part of whatever accession you entered them with.

If at any time someone comes along and identifies one of the insects in this lot, give that individual specimen it's own catalog number and then create the relationship "same lot as" to the original catalog number.

If this is all clear as mud, let's talk on the phone!

OR

Send me an example and I'll enter it for you so you can see what I mean.

campmlc commented 5 years ago

We do this with parasites that have not been sorted and IDd yet. It would be one catalog number, ID Phylum Arthropoda for example, whole organism part, lot count of xxx.

On Wed, Apr 24, 2019, 3:42 PM Teresa Mayfield-Meyer < notifications@github.com> wrote:

If I have an accession that includes 10 vials of unsorted insects in lots, do I have to assign a catalog number to each of those 10 vials?

That depends. Did they all come from the exact same locality at the same time? Were they collected by the same person? Do you have any kind of taxonomic identification for any of them?

If they are from a single collecting event, then I would assign one catalog number to all 10 vials (is there one insect in each vial?) and use the part name "whole organism" with whatever preservation fluid they are in or dry if that's how they are preserved and lot count of "10". If they are not identified and the best you can do is "Insecta", that is fine for an identification.

Can I retain them simply as "lot of 20 insects; lot of 32 insects; lot of 'many insects'" with just the accession number as an identifier, or even a collector #, and only assign the catalog numbers after they've been sorted?

Add any other identifiers that you have to the catalog record as they generally come in handy in the future. You don't need to add an accession number as the catalog number should be part of whatever accession you entered them with.

If at any time someone comes along and identifies one of the insects in this lot, give that individual specimen it's own catalog number and then create the relationship "same lot as" to the original catalog number.

If this is all clear as mud, let's talk on the phone!

OR

Send me an example and I'll enter it for you so you can see what I mean.

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/ArctosDB/arctos/issues/2056#issuecomment-486438423, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADQ7JBANVT3CNCZRCIZPKPTPSDH37ANCNFSM4HIHVNDA .

mbprondzinski commented 5 years ago

Now that I'm finally having the time to read the Arctos handbook, it is starting to make sense. We have a collection of insects that were donated by one of our curators (to which one accession number was assigned the day it was received) and he was wondering how to deal with the unsorted stuff in Arctos. I wasn't sure if he needed to assign a catalog number to the unsorted stuff or simply let it lie until it could be identified. But assigning all the unsorted vials to one catalog number initially and then assigning individual catalog numbers to the specimens once they are identified would work.

campmlc commented 5 years ago

Hi Mary Beth, Assigning an accession number is the best idea, I believe. We have the same issue with ectoparasites, but in that case I do sometimes go ahead and catalog as "Arthropoda". But that is because otherwise they are only just parts of the host record. In this case, you can track as an accession, and you can even barcode the vials or put them into object tracking and barcode the case they are in, for example, and you can add the barcode to the accession. Happy to go over this in detail.

On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 9:51 AM Mary Beth notifications@github.com wrote:

Another question for you: If I have an accession that includes 10 vials of unsorted insects in lots, do I have to assign a catalog number to each of those 10 vials? Can I retain them simply as "lot of 20 insects; lot of 32 insects; lot of 'many insects'" with just the accession number as an identifier, or even a collector #, and only assign the catalog numbers after they've been sorted?

Thanks. MB

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/ArctosDB/documentation-wiki/issues/97?email_source=notifications&email_token=ADQ7JBCH6BHMN3LOLMLUWI3QMS7PXA5CNFSM4I4YGDBKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFUVEXG43VMWVGG33NNVSW45C7NFSM4HPFONBQ, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADQ7JBESZQPCD73HII6L4ALQMS7PXANCNFSM4I4YGDBA .

dustymc commented 5 years ago

@campmlc @mbprondzinski I just moved all 'needs documentation' issues to this repository in an attempt to clean up the main repo. Please do feel free to move anything that's not actually ready for documentation back.