This is a brief overview of a historical collection of stomach content cards put together by Elizabeth Manning located at USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. A consortium of volunteers and scientists are busy developing a plan to get these cards scanned in and ultimately databased and available to researchers and others interested in natural history. Contents include 250,000 dissections of the stomachs of birds, mammals, Reptiles, and Amphibians in North America
Based on data from 170K bee collection records from 2000-2016, we build graphs showing the abundance (phenology) of 49 bee genera in the Mid-Atlantic area of North America
How to Make an LED Microcope Light from a FlashlightSam Droege
German Perilla has created a lovely demonstration on how to modify a LED flashlight and make it into a high powered microscope light that can be plugged into an electrical outlet. Comparable to, but much cheaper than, fiber optic lights.
Do it!
With remote work and virtual teams starting to be embraced everywhere, the competition for top talent is increasing. Job perks are a great way to show appreciation and build company culture. Discover these 25 job perks for remote workers in a list put together by www.remoteworkmate.com.
We demonstrate how to quickly cut and label museum insect specimens using razor blades and minimizing the movement of specimens, speeding up the process and decreasing specimen damage.
Tree Fruit and Berry Pollination in Virginia (and the mid-Atlantic by extension)Sam Droege
Bee pollination is essential for many fruits and berries grown in Virginia, including apples, blueberries, caneberries, and cucurbits. Native bees and other non-Apis bees play an important role in pollination alongside honey bees. A study surveyed bees on apple, blueberry, caneberry and cucurbit crops, finding a diversity of bee species including andrenid bees, bumble bees, and squash bees. The document provides recommendations to support native bee populations through habitat protection and integrated pest management practices.
How to preserve and display insect specimens in hand sanitizerSam Droege
We describe how to use display insects and other natural history items in vials of hand sanitizer. Good for displays where people want to look closely and handle specimens and has wonderful visual effects.
Based on data from 170K bee collection records from 2000-2016, we build graphs showing the abundance (phenology) of 49 bee genera in the Mid-Atlantic area of North America
How to Make an LED Microcope Light from a FlashlightSam Droege
German Perilla has created a lovely demonstration on how to modify a LED flashlight and make it into a high powered microscope light that can be plugged into an electrical outlet. Comparable to, but much cheaper than, fiber optic lights.
Do it!
With remote work and virtual teams starting to be embraced everywhere, the competition for top talent is increasing. Job perks are a great way to show appreciation and build company culture. Discover these 25 job perks for remote workers in a list put together by www.remoteworkmate.com.
We demonstrate how to quickly cut and label museum insect specimens using razor blades and minimizing the movement of specimens, speeding up the process and decreasing specimen damage.
Tree Fruit and Berry Pollination in Virginia (and the mid-Atlantic by extension)Sam Droege
Bee pollination is essential for many fruits and berries grown in Virginia, including apples, blueberries, caneberries, and cucurbits. Native bees and other non-Apis bees play an important role in pollination alongside honey bees. A study surveyed bees on apple, blueberry, caneberry and cucurbit crops, finding a diversity of bee species including andrenid bees, bumble bees, and squash bees. The document provides recommendations to support native bee populations through habitat protection and integrated pest management practices.
How to preserve and display insect specimens in hand sanitizerSam Droege
We describe how to use display insects and other natural history items in vials of hand sanitizer. Good for displays where people want to look closely and handle specimens and has wonderful visual effects.
The document describes a new design for height-adjustable bee bowl traps. The current method of using bee bowls has problems like bowls being overturned by wind or wildlife, or difficult to locate in dense vegetation. The new design uses a wooden cross with bowls attached at each end and a screw to adjust the height by securing the cross on a rebar stake. This allows the traps to be placed higher off the ground to avoid being disturbed or run over.
Survey Design for Monitoring North American Native BeesSam Droege
This slide show was presented at the 2009 North American Pollinator Protection Campaign meetings in Washington D.C. It was designed to brief the participants about plans to develop a statistically relevant but inexpensive means of determining if our bees are declining. Details can be obtained from Sam Droege (sdroege@usgs.gov).
A set of phenological charts for the genera and common species of native bees occurring in the Mid-Atlantic region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia), created from the USGS Native Bee Database housed at Disvoerlife
This photo album contains photos from various events and trips over the past year. The photos are arranged chronologically and include snapshots from vacations, holidays with family, and birthday parties for friends. Flipping through the album allows one to reminisce on fond memories from the past year.
The document provides guidelines for implementing large-scale monitoring of native bee populations globally, nationally, or regionally. It outlines recommended conservative monitoring protocols that can be adjusted locally. The guidelines aim to define clear goals and objectives, recommend sampling techniques like pan traps, and provide background on calculating adequate sample sizes based on variability, precision desired, and trends to be detected over time.
This document provides instructions for building two types of autobeedryers - one using a squirrel cage fan and one using an axial fan - to dry wet bee specimens. The squirrel cage autobeedryer is constructed using a wooden box and PVC pipe container for the bees. The axial fan autobeedryer uses a plastic food container with the bottom and lid cut out as the bee container, placed over the axial fan. Both designs provide a constant airflow to dry the bees thoroughly while leaving for other tasks. Modifications to the designs are encouraged.
This slide show demonstrates how to dry bee and other insect specimens that have been stored in alcohol or other liquids with the goal of them having good looking hair.
To properly prepare bee specimens, a two-step process of washing and drying is necessary. Washing involves placing the bees in a jar with a screen lid and vigorously swirling them in warm, soapy water for at least one minute to remove dirt and sticky residues from their bodies. The bees are then rinsed with water until the rinse water is clear. Proper drying is also important for achieving specimens that are identifiable and aesthetically pleasing.
Guide to the Bee Genera within Apidae of Eastern North America, Part 2Sam Droege
This document provides summaries of bee genera found in eastern North America, including 3-sentence descriptions of Peponapis pruinosa, Xenoglossa, and Apis mellifera. It also lists the number of species for each genus covered and notes genera that certain species may be confused with due to similarities. Key identification features are highlighted for each genus.
Identification Guide to the Megachilidae Genera of Eastern North AmericaSam Droege
An identification guide to the genera of Megachilidae of North America. Includes illustrations, identification tips, distributional facts for separating out the genera
The document describes a new design for height-adjustable bee bowl traps. The current method of using bee bowls has problems like bowls being overturned by wind or wildlife, or difficult to locate in dense vegetation. The new design uses a wooden cross with bowls attached at each end and a screw to adjust the height by securing the cross on a rebar stake. This allows the traps to be placed higher off the ground to avoid being disturbed or run over.
Survey Design for Monitoring North American Native BeesSam Droege
This slide show was presented at the 2009 North American Pollinator Protection Campaign meetings in Washington D.C. It was designed to brief the participants about plans to develop a statistically relevant but inexpensive means of determining if our bees are declining. Details can be obtained from Sam Droege (sdroege@usgs.gov).
A set of phenological charts for the genera and common species of native bees occurring in the Mid-Atlantic region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia), created from the USGS Native Bee Database housed at Disvoerlife
This photo album contains photos from various events and trips over the past year. The photos are arranged chronologically and include snapshots from vacations, holidays with family, and birthday parties for friends. Flipping through the album allows one to reminisce on fond memories from the past year.
The document provides guidelines for implementing large-scale monitoring of native bee populations globally, nationally, or regionally. It outlines recommended conservative monitoring protocols that can be adjusted locally. The guidelines aim to define clear goals and objectives, recommend sampling techniques like pan traps, and provide background on calculating adequate sample sizes based on variability, precision desired, and trends to be detected over time.
This document provides instructions for building two types of autobeedryers - one using a squirrel cage fan and one using an axial fan - to dry wet bee specimens. The squirrel cage autobeedryer is constructed using a wooden box and PVC pipe container for the bees. The axial fan autobeedryer uses a plastic food container with the bottom and lid cut out as the bee container, placed over the axial fan. Both designs provide a constant airflow to dry the bees thoroughly while leaving for other tasks. Modifications to the designs are encouraged.
This slide show demonstrates how to dry bee and other insect specimens that have been stored in alcohol or other liquids with the goal of them having good looking hair.
To properly prepare bee specimens, a two-step process of washing and drying is necessary. Washing involves placing the bees in a jar with a screen lid and vigorously swirling them in warm, soapy water for at least one minute to remove dirt and sticky residues from their bodies. The bees are then rinsed with water until the rinse water is clear. Proper drying is also important for achieving specimens that are identifiable and aesthetically pleasing.
Guide to the Bee Genera within Apidae of Eastern North America, Part 2Sam Droege
This document provides summaries of bee genera found in eastern North America, including 3-sentence descriptions of Peponapis pruinosa, Xenoglossa, and Apis mellifera. It also lists the number of species for each genus covered and notes genera that certain species may be confused with due to similarities. Key identification features are highlighted for each genus.
Identification Guide to the Megachilidae Genera of Eastern North AmericaSam Droege
An identification guide to the genera of Megachilidae of North America. Includes illustrations, identification tips, distributional facts for separating out the genera
2. Goals for the Historical Food Habits project
a) Safeguard data (electronic storage)
• Scan all cards to hard drives (pdf image files)
b) Safeguard cards (physical storage)
• After scanning, move cards to safe long-term storage
c) Transform currently inaccessible data into globally accessible usable
information (i.e. searchable online database)
3. Data Fields for each card
Header (general data: easy to read and comprehend):
• Biological data for the collected specimen (genus, species; sex and age in some
cases)
• Card number (accession number)
• Locality (town, state)
• Where killed (habitat)
• Date (month, day, year)
• Hour (time of death)
Food Habits (‘stomach’ contents - specialist data):
• Characterized contents (either percentages or counts of specific plant and animal
material e.g. Gastropoda, C. florida )
• Collector (name and sometimes a collector number)
• Condition of stomach/gullet (how full)
• Percentage of:
- animal matter - vegetable matter - Gravel, rubbish etc.
• Examination date, examiner name
4. Example cards, with entertaining oddities
- Card number (42444) is high for the very early collection date (1876)
- Is this an error? There are other cards with similar dates/numbers
- 24 years elapsed between sample collection and food contents analysis (1910). That’s
a long time to float in formalin!
- Can YOU read Beal’s handwriting?
6. Feasibility trial to evaluate data entry
• Select high profile species (Wood thrush) with representative card
complexity DONE
• Review summary sheets to outline extent of dataset DONE
• Scan cards DONE, pdf format
• Enter header data DONE, via Excel
• Review food habits data entered via Access DONE*
• Share resultant dataset with Consortium colleagues to determine
best:
• online host for ~250,000 pdfs (est. 75 gb) for transcription
• data entry system for generalist header data transcribed from pdfs
• data entry system for specialist food habits data transcribed from pdfs
* Thanks to Haas, Gorman et al.
7. Hylocichla mustulina (Wood Thrush)
Submissions by state
60
50 Total = 180
Gender: Unknown 81
40 Female 38
Male 61
30
20
10
0
PA
WI
Canada
CT
FL
IL
KS
MA
VA
ME
SC
NY
AL
GA
MI
NC
NJ
TX
MS
DC
TN
Draft
9. Citations collected during HFHabits study demonstrate its
perspective : how do these species affect humans?
Birds of CT – Bishop - 1913
1912
10. Header field issues affecting data entry system design
Header (general data):
• Biological data:
• Species name changes (Turdus mustelina became Hylocichla mustelina)
• Gender noted ~ 50% of the time; age rarely (juvenile/immature or adult)
• Card number (accession).
• Never omitted. Number unrelated to species, date, location. (Likely collectors
were handed out-of-sequence stacks of cards whenever they ran out. )
• Locality (town, state)
• Rarely omitted but inconsistent names.
• Where killed (habitat).
• Neither specific nor consistent terminology e.g. : Woods, woodland and field, upland
grove, timber, cedar grove, rocky woods, oak grove, thicket, low woods, hemlock
woods, hardwoods, near woods, deep woods, deciduous woods, near woodlands.
• Date (month, day, year)
• Consistently included.
• Hour (time of death)
• Included much more often than gender of sample unfortunately.
11. Gordian knot approach for data entry
To transform currently inaccessible data to globally accessible, accurately
transcribed and usable information:
Separate the entry process into two independent but linked parts :
1. Header - generalist data fields
a) Themselves valuable research data
b) Predominantly clearly written and straight-forward therefore easy to enter (Can be
read, entered and proof-read by just about anybody)
c) Once entered online they characterize the entire database, opening it to any investigator
including specialists
d) Focus on these fields first
2. Food habits - specialist data fields
a) Predominantly unclearly written and require specialist (entymologist, botanist, etc.)
expertise to interpret and enter online
b) Principal investigators focused on this area of research are the most likely to commit
resources (grants, grad students, etc.) to wringing out the information – we don’t have the
resources
12. Please let us know:
Thoughts at this point on the best …
• Online host for scanned images and linked evolving database?
• American Bird Network? SORA? Biodiversity Universe?
• Data entry system linked with scanned cards for both:
1. Header data (generalist input)
2. Food habits data (specialist input)
• Access?
• Zooniverse and its Scribe system?
• Other?