LinEpig:

Developing a taxonomic reference using collections-management

systems

ErigoninaeLinyphiidae is the 2nd-most speciose spider

family in the world, and it has the most genera.

The erigonines account for 90% of linyphiid diversity. North America has more than 120 erigonine genera – 42% of them monotypic – and over 650 species.

Stylish male Erigone atrarepresenting the subfamily at Wikipedia

Spiders of North America: An Identification Manual, 2005

Intended use:

Subverted use:

But spider ID reference was not really what Picasa was meant for…

And now Picasa was going away.

The images in Google+ were better – but they were no longer presented in a useful way.

But there were also other things we couldn’t do even on the old Picasa

Erigonines in Cooliris display, David Shorthouse ispiders.blogspot.com December 2008

The Nearctic Spider

Database, RIP

(2007-2010)

And palps … but now we had the Leica with automontage

and that created new possibilities

Ceratinopsis nigriceps by N. Dupérré, 2003

And by this point, the Field Museum had acquired a collection-management system

This created the possibility of re-creating LinEpig as a custom-built, taxonomically rich resource in its proper home at the museum.

Authors

Moving in…

First nameLast nameYear bornYear diedID

TaxaGenusSpeciesParent taxonAuthor(s)YearID

ImagesSpeciesSexAnatomyViewCreatorInstitutionID

SpecimenDateLocationHabitatCollection methodCollected byDet asDet byInstitutionID

Authors

291 =>

Some of them required a bit of disambiguation

Taxa

4,474 =>

The result

4474 linyphiid taxa =>

291 linyphiid authors =>

241 LinEpig images =>

<= specimen info will go here, with a field for the institution

Say something – but briefly

Say something – but briefly

Say something – but briefly

Which is great for collections, when you know you’re looking for, and want to see if we have it. It’s not so helpful for the mystery specimen in your dish…

What you want is one of those mug books like the police have, so you can identify your suspect

The New LinEpig

DEMO: http://bit.ly/LinEpigdemo

YOUR COMMENTS:

http://bit.ly/LinEpigfeedback

This is a shared Google doc in which you can all make comments right now, simultaneously, as we look at the demo, or later, on your own.

One thing I haven’t added yet is the locality info. We have better data than what was in Picasa

It will be up to GBIF standards

EOL map based on GBIF Linyphiidae occurrence records eol.org/pages/8781/maps

<= Go to MCZ collection record

The specimen record in MCZbase

What do we want to build?

<=Equipment

<=Code

Spiders =>

• Internal links/filters

• External links

• Info enrichment

Ways to make LinEpig more useful

Internal links/filters

• Show larger/research view of image

• Show all species of this genus

• Show all species by this author

• Select states or regions

• Select certain genera

Example:

External links

• Lending institution’s specimen record

• Link to species page in World Spider Catalog

• Link to species page in BOLD, GBIF, etc.

http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/species/14755/Ceraticelus_bulbosus

http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/TaxBrowser_TaxonPage?taxon=Ceraticelus+bulbosus

Examples:

Information enrichment

• Literature references

• More info on authors

• Descriptive narrative, possibly for genus

• Character coding (eg, has epigynal atrium)

Grammonota tends to have an abdominal chevron

Li Shuqiang is at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology in Beijing

Examples:

Things to consider

• How effort much would it take?

• Is it something someone else is already doing, or should be doing, or could do better? (the classic cybertaxonomy dilemma)

• Should the effort go into imaging more of the Erigoninae?

Data issues

• Data rights issues

• Contributed images

• Accuracy issues

• Updates and maintenance

Gnathonarium famelicum palp & epigynum by D. Buckle, 2011

Example:

What are your thoughts?

DEMO: http://bit.ly/LinEpigdemo

YOUR COMMENTS:

http://bit.ly/LinEpigfeedback

This is a shared Google doc in which you can make comments at any time.

Thank you Field Museum colleagues

• Petra Sierwald, arachnids & myriapods• Corrie Moreau, Stephanie Ware, Robin Delapena,

Alexandra Westrich, and everybody at our Collaborative Invertebrate Lab and Moreau Ant Lab

• Sharon Grant, technology liaison to science• Pete Herbst, web & database specialist

Thank you friends and supporters

• Norman Platnick, World Spider Catalog 2000-14• David Shorthouse, Nearctic Spider Database• My linyphiid elders and mentors Rod Crawford, Mike

Draney, Robert Edwards, Don Buckle• LinEpig contributors Paula Cushing, Rich Bradley,

Rick Vetter, Tom Prentice, GB Edwards, Marc Milne, Derek Sikes & Brandi Fleshman, Jim Steffen, Claudia Copley & Derek Copley, Gonzalo Giribet & Laura Leibensperger

• Lee Sandlin

Nina SandlinSpiders - ZoologyThe Field Museum1400 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60605-2496 USA nsandlin@fieldmuseum.org

llinepig.fieldmuseum.org