[Nhcoll-l] Databasing Specimens Collected from Other Specimens

[Doug Yanega]

I'll agree with the comments by previous respondents; one collecting 
event, two catalogue numbers, cross-referenced *to each other* so 
anyone working wth either specimen or specimen record will be made 
aware that there is associated material. The examples given are all 
apropos, though not exhaustive, by any means. Specimens that were 
collected while mating, specimens of a predator and its prey, an 
insect gall and the insect(s) that emerged from it; these are other 
very common examples of specimens that are physically separate 
objects in collections, but whose data are not independent. The last 
example in this list points out the most common complication, however 
- that of *temporal* separation. That is, if a gall is harvested from 
the field on March 1st, and insects emerge from it on April 8th, then 
both dates need to be indicated in the each specimen record for those 
insects. One has to have a properly-constructed database to allow for 
proper annotation in such circumstances.
	The extreme example is a laboratory/garden culture: if 
someone from California flies to a small town in India, gathers some 
organisms endemic to that locality, brings them back and raises them, 
and takes voucher specimens from the Nth generation progeny 10 years 
later, it really is necessary to link any such specimens back to the 
original collecting event and locality - otherwise, anyone finding 
those records online and mapping them will suppose that California is 
part of the distribution of that species!

Peace,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82