Digitization PEN: Incorporation of a Massive New World Invertebrate Collection at the University of Texas at El Paso

德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校生物多样性收藏中心(UTEP-BC)目前拥有数万份用于DNA研究的宝贵的自然历史标本和相关组织，其中包括来自美国各州和西半球大陆几乎每个国家的35.5万份无脊椎动物标本。虽然这些收藏具有全球范围，但它们主要集中在美国西南部和墨西哥北部的奇瓦瓦沙漠生态区，这是SCAN(节肢动物共生区收藏网络)主题收藏网络(TCN)的主要重点。该项目将为20多名本科生和1名研究生提供培训。这些学生将参加一项访问UTEP Indio山脉研究站的研究体验活动，通过扫描观察蚂蚁和其他地面生活的节肢动物，将照片上传到iNaturist(带有研究级标识)，并通过收集标本和相关数据，跟踪和了解从野外到采集到公众获取数据的收集数据的过程。这些学生和另一批UTEP艺术专业的学生还将在公共博物馆合作举办一场关于新大陆蚂蚁的展览。大部分展品将以收藏中实际蚂蚁标本的高精度3D打印机模型(约30厘米长)为特色。在这个项目中，UTEP-BC的目标是通过北亚利桑那大学加入扫描项目。SCAN的主要目标是在美国西南部形成一个由不同收藏品组成的数字和虚拟网络，这些收藏品可以被iDigBio基础设施捕获，用于大规模的生物多样性科学分析。扫描网络对五种节肢动物进行了优先排序：蚂蚁(蚁科)、地面甲虫(步甲科)、蝗虫(蝗科)、暗色甲虫(拟步甲科)和蜘蛛(蜘蛛科)。UTEP-BC拥有大量这些节肢动物，随着这些标本的数字化记录被移植到Arctos(UTEP使用的在线数据库)，这些数据可以很容易地被采集到扫描网络中，并与iDigBio(www.iDigBio.org)共享。该项目的一个主要目标是(通过地理定位和其他资源)为25,725个采集事件(代表约232,000个标本)提供地理参考坐标数据和其他质量控制校正，这些采集事件早于现代全球定位系统技术(2000年之前)，用于UTEP-BC采集中的五个重点节肢动物组。总体而言，这将使最近通过扫描编目的标本总数从253,717件增加到485,717件，增幅为90%。该项目包括对学生的广泛培训，一个将利用UTEP-BC蚂蚁标本的种群遗传学项目，以及一个关于新大陆蚂蚁的大型公共博物馆展览。

The University of Texas at El Paso Biodiversity Collections (UTEP-BC) currently contains tens of thousands of invaluable natural history specimens and associated tissues for DNA studies, including 355,000 invertebrate specimens from every state in the US and nearly every country in the continental western hemisphere. Although these collections have a global purview, they are mainly focused on the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion of the southwestern US and northern Mexico, which is the primary focus of the SCAN (Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network) Thematic Collections Network (TCN). This project will provide training for over 20 undergraduate students, and one graduate student. These students will participate in a research experience activity to visit the UTEP Indio Mountains Research Station to follow and understand the process of collection data capture from field to collection to public accessibility through SCAN, by observing ants and other ground-dwelling arthropods in the field, uploading photos to iNaturalist (with research-grade identifications), and by collecting specimens and associated data. These students and another cadre of UTEP art students will also collaborate on a public museum exhibit about Ants of the New World. The majority of the exhibits will feature highly accurate 3D printer models (about 30 cm long) of actual ant specimens from the collections. In this project, the UTEP-BC aims to join the SCAN project via Northern Arizona University. The primary goal of SCAN is to form a digital and virtual network of disparate collections in the southwestern US, which can be captured by the iDigBio infrastructure for large-scale biodiversity science analyses. The SCAN network has prioritized five arthropod groups: ants (Formicidae), ground beetles (Carabidae), grasshoppers (Acrididae), darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae), and spiders (Araneae). The UTEP-BC has substantial holdings of these arthropods, and as digitized records for these specimens are migrated to Arctos (the online database in use at UTEP), these data can be easily captured by into the SCAN network and shared with iDigBio (www.iDigBio.org). A primary goal of this project is to provide georeferenced coordinate data (via GEOLocate and other resources) and other quality-control corrections for 25,725 collection events (representing ca. 232,000 specimens) that predate modern GPS technology (before 2000) for the five focal arthropod groups in the UTEP-BC collections. Overall, this will increase the total number of recently catalogued specimens by SCAN from 253,717 to 485,717, an increase of 90%. The project includes extensive training of students, a population-genetics project that will utilize ant specimens from the UTEP-BC, and a major public museum exhibit about Ants of the New World.