[Nhcoll-l] Databasing Specimens Collected from Other Specimens

[Paul J. Morris]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:54:14 -0500
"Lewis-Gentry, Genevieve" <glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu> wrote:
> Our example:
> Insect specimens were collected, identified, and stored in an
> entomological collection. Later, the insects were checked for a type
> of fungus (Laboulbeniales) and when found they were removed and
> mounted on permanent slides in the fungal collections. What counts as
> the collecting information? The original collection information for
> locality etc? (Which is our thought.) Who is the collector? The
> person who collected the insect or the person who collected the
> fungus? There are collector numbers for both.

If the assertion is that the fungus was associated with the insect in the wild, then the "collection" of the fungus from the insect is a preparation event, rather than a collecting event - a new preparation is being made from the insect collection object, which just happens to be a collection object that will be curated in a different collection.  The act of collecting these from the wild was the original collecting event with the original collector and their field number/collectors number.  In this case, the preparation step is no different from taking a tissue sample from the insect for DNA extraction, or creating a slide mount of the insect's genitalia - the semantics are that one collection object was divided into two collection objects with some preparation step.  

If the assertion is that the fungus started growing on the insect in the collection (or in the reverse case, an insect was found eating a plant collection object in a herbarium), then the collecting event is the sampling of the fungus from the insect in the collection, because the assertion is that the place in the wild where the fungus was found was within the collection.  

-Paul
-- 
Paul J. Morris
Biodiversity Informatics Manager
Harvard University Herbaria/Museum of Comparative Zoölogy
mole at morris.net  AA3SD  PGP public key available