Digitization, Conversion, and Accessibility of The Field Museum's Bat Fly Collection

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A grant has been awarded to the Field Museum of Natural History under the direction of Dr. Carl W. Dick to construct a database for a natural history collection of bat flies, parasites of mammals. The collection is the largest in the world (82,000 specimens) and contains information on the parasitic bat flies as well as their bat hosts. The collection and its data are a valuable resource for ecologists studying the host-parasite relationships of this group of organisms. The database will be available online and provide information on identification, geographic range, and images of 176 specimens that were described as new to science (type species). High school students will participate in summer education programs under the direction of a teacher from a nearby high school. Graduate students from Ecuador and Brazil, where these parasites are common, will be trained during the project.