Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Plants, Herbivores, and Parasitoids: A Model System for the Study of Tri-Trophic Associations

国家自然历史博物馆的标本数据是了解生物多样性的重要资源，包括对农业和国家安全具有战略重要性的许多物种。 不幸的是，这些信息通常是通过分类单元类型而不是通过各种生物体来获得的。这个专题收集网络（TCN）项目通过整合来自美国14个植物学和18个昆虫学收集的标本信息和照片来解决这个问题。 捕获的数据将大大提高我们对北美半翅目11，000多种物种（介壳虫，蚜虫，叶蝉，真正的错误和亲戚），它们的食物植物和寄生半翅目的黄蜂之间关系的理解。 该技术中心网络将利用创新技术，包括可上网查阅的数据库和高分辨率数字成像技术，以获取并通过互联网广泛传播160多万半翅目昆虫、20万寄生虫和600万植物标本的数据。 该TCN项目为这一群体和受这些昆虫影响的植物群体捕获的标本信息将与农业科学，气候变化，入侵物种，生物分类，保护和生态系统的研究有关。 它将代表美国博物馆和大学最广泛的非联邦收藏资源的数据的真正大规模整合，从而为科学家，政策制定者和公众解决国家优先事项做出重大贡献。 学生参与和现代技术培训是该项目的组成部分。该奖项是作为国家资源的一部分，通过推进生物收藏品数字化计划，从这个奖项产生的所有数据将通过国家资源。

Specimen data in the nation's natural history museums are essential resources for understanding biological diversity, including many species of strategic importance to agriculture and national security. Unfortunately this information is generally available by taxon type rather than integrated across kinds of organisms. This Thematic Collections Network (TCN) project addresses that problem by integrating specimen information and photographs from 14 botanical and 18 entomological collections across the United States. The data captured will dramatically improve our understanding of the relationships among the more than 11,000 species of North American Hemiptera (scale insects, aphids, leafhoppers, true bugs, and relatives), their food plants, and the wasps that parasitize the hemipterans. This TCN will utilize innovative technologies, including Web-accessible databases and high-resolution digital imaging, in order to capture and broadly disseminate via the Internet data for more than 1.6 million hemipteran, 200,000 parasitoid, and 6 million plant specimens.The Hemiptera is a group of insects containing many species of great economic importance in the United States. The specimen information captured by this TCN project for this group and the groups of plants affected by these insects will be relevant for studies in agricultural sciences, climate change, invasive species, biological classification, conservation, and ecosystems. It will represent a truly large-scale integration of data from the broadest range of non-federal collection resources in U.S. museums and universities, thereby making a significant contribution to the solution of national priorities by scientists, policy makers, and the general public. Student participation and training in modern technologies are integral aspects of the project. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource.