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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/13/14 4:01 PM, Colin Favret wrote:<br>
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<blockquote
cite="mid:CABKJV_EBjvoj=wFCU7P2ubhuuXjMyLn_JzwUy0h4F8RmMk3EGw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">Has
anyone dealt with the distinction between issuing unique IDs
(for labels and database records) for museum objects versus
specimens? A case in point might be a microscope slide with
100 specimens on it (or a jar, envelope, etc.). These
specimens can be of multiple taxa, different sexes, life
stages, etc. I believe most collections label the museum
object (slide, jar, envelope, etc.) with a unique identifier
and then treat the specimens as a lot, but this doesn't fully
parse out the data associated with the various specimens in a
specimen database.</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">I've
developed my own solution (unique ID label for the object,
decimal numbers but no label for the individual specimens or
specimen lots - e.g. INST123456 for the slide, INST123456.001
for the first specimen lot, INST123456.002 for the second,
etc.).</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">But I'm
wondering what others have done or if there is anything out
there approaching an industry standard.</div>
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</blockquote>
When multiple specimens in the same "unit" are the same species, our
database has fields for number of total specimens, number of males,
number of females, number of "other" (any non-adult). There is only
one database record, therefore, regardless of how many specimens
(very convenient for vials). When multiple *taxa* are together, they
each get the same number with a suffix, and each unique taxon gets a
separate record in the database (e.g., UCRC ENT 34775a, UCRC ENT
34775b, UCRC ENT 34775c). We don't distinguish between individual
specimens of the same taxon in either case UNLESS one or more is a
type specimen, and even then we prefer to re-mount them
individually.<br>
<br>
The most common case we have is predatory insects pinned together
with their prey items, or parasitoids mounted with the corpse of
their host. We now discourage this particular practice, since a
database allows specimens to be linked without requiring them to be
on the same pin.<br>
<br>
Peace,<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html">http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
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