Plants, Herbivores, and Parasitoids
A Model System for the study of Tri-Trophic Associations
NSF ADBC Digitization TCN
Melissa Tulig, Toby Schuh & Rob Naczi
TCN Partners
This project could not have been
put together without an amazing
team of people.
Botany
▫ Robert Magill, Missouri Botanical Garden
▫ Robert Naczi, New York Botanical Garden
▫ Richard Rabeler, University of Michigan
▫ Melissa Tulig, New York Botanical Garden
▫ Margaret Koopman, Eastern Michigan University
▫ Loy Phillippe, Illinois Natural History Survey
▫ Deborah Lewis, Iowa State University
▫ Michael Vincent, Miami University
▫ Timothy Hogan, University of Colorado
▫ Mary Ann Feist, University of Illinois
▫ Craig Freeman, University of Kansas
▫ Christopher Cambell, University of Maine
▫ Anita Cholewa, University of Minnesota
▫ Beryl Simpson, University of Texas
▫ Kenneth Cameron, University of Wisconsin
Data Contributors
▫ Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
▫ Consortium of California Herbaria
▫ Southwest Biodiversity Consortium
Entomology
▫ Toby Schuh, American Museum of Natural History
▫ Christine Johnson, American Museum of Natural History
▫ Christiane Weirauch, University of California, Riverside
▫ John Heraty, University of California, Riverside
▫ Charles Bartlett, University of Delaware
▫ Benjamin Normark, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
▫ Neal Evenhuis, BP Bishop Museum, Honolulu
▫ David Kavanaugh ,California Academy of Sciences
▫ Stephen D. Gaimari ,California Dept. Food and Agriculture
▫ Chen Young, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg
▫ Boris C. Kondratieff, Colorado State University
▫ James K. Liebherr, Cornell University
▫ Dmitry Dmitriev, Illinois Natural History Survey
▫ Richard Brown, Mississippi State University
▫ Andy Deans, North Carolina State University
▫ David Maddison, Oregon State University
▫ John Oswald, Texas A&M University
▫ Kipling Will, University of California, Berkeley
▫ Caroline Chaboo , University of Kansas
▫ Michael Sharkey , University of Kentucky
Data Contributors
▫
▫
▫
Canadian National Collection, Ottawa
University of California, Davis
Kansas State University
30 Institutions across the US
A Tri-Trophic Example
Plants
Crop Plants
(Solanaceae)
Herbivory causes
yellowing of leaves,
curled leaves, stunted
growth, wilting, low
harvesting yields and
death of the plant
Insect Herbivores
Parasitoids
Aphids
(Hemiptera)
Parasitic wasps
(Hymenoptera)
Pierce stems and leaves
to feed on the plants –
specialize on one species
or numerous species
Lay eggs directly inside
the aphids and consume
them from the inside out
A Tri-Trophic Approach
• About 85% of Hemiptera are herbivorous with high
host specificity for many large plant families
(Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae)
• Hempitera are serious agricultural pests (armored
scales, mealy bugs, potato leafhoppers, Lygus bugs)
• Vectors of viral and bacterial diseases (Green peach
aphid is a vector of over 100 plant viruses)
• Parasitic Hymenoptera are very beneficial as
biological control agents
• The relationship between these groups is of
significant ecological and economic importance
Species Coverage for the North American Biota
Bugs
Hemiptera
Coccoidea (scale insects)
Aphidoidea (plant lice)
Psylloidea (jumping plant lice)
Plants
Number
of species
986
1,532
176
Auchenorrhyncha (cicadas, hoppers)
4,629
Heteroptera
3,827
Total Hemiptera
Parasitoid Hymenoptera
11,150
Number
of species
Aphelinidae
212
Encyrtidae
490
Mymaridae
187
Signiphoridae
Trichogrammatidae
Total Parasitoids
19
131
1,039
Family
Apiaceae
Asteraceae
Chenopodiaceae
Cupressaceae
Cyperaceae
Fabaceae
Fagaceae
Grossulariaceae
Juglandaceae
Lamiaceae
Oleaceae
Pinaceae
Poaceae
Polygonaceae
Rhamnaceae
Rosaceae
Salicaceae
Scrophulariaceae
Solanaceae
Zygophyllaceae
Total
Number of
species
250
2,400
250
30
850
850
97
53
17
240
35
66
1,400
440
75
360
123
430
85
15
8,066
Bugs Specimen Digitization
Institution
American Museum of Natural History
% georeferenced
Specimens
databased
Prior funding
30,000
100
0
0
California Academy Sciences
4,000
100
NSF-PBI
40,000
California Dept. Food & Agriculture
1,000
100
NSF-PBI
75,000
Carnegie Museum
0
1
15,000
Colorado State University
0
1
15,000
Cornell University
0
1
30,000
36,000
100
Mississippi St. University
0
0
N. Carolina St. University
1,000
100
Oregon State University
1,000
100
Texas A&M University
15,000
100
NSF-PBI
150,000
University of California, Berkeley, Essig Mus.
12,000
92
NSF-PBI, NSF-BRC
45,000
University of California, Riverside
14,000
100
NSF-PBI, NSF-DBI
75,000
2,000
0
20,000
University of Kansas
0
0
50,000
University of Kentucky
0
0
35,000
10,000
0
15,000
B. P. Bishop Museum
Illinois Natural History Survey
University of Delaware
University Massachussetts
Total
Grand Total
126,000
NSF-PBI
Specimens to
be databased
333,000
70,000
NSF-REVSYS
73,000
50,000
NSF-BRC
75,000
40,000
1,206,000
1,332,000
Plants Specimen Digitization
Institution
%
georeferenced
Specimens
databased
Prior funding
Specimens to
be databased
or enhanced
University of Colorado
51,000
0
67,000
Eastern Michigan Univ.
0
0
10,000
University of Illinois
0
0
30,000
308,000
17
94,000
Iowa State University
46,000
0
102,000
University of Kansas
129,000
65
97,000
University of Maine
100,000
0
34,000
University of Michigan
26,000
0
115,000
University of Minnesota
93,000
10
NSF- BRC
70,000
247,000
25
NSF-BRC
101,000
14,000
5
New York Bot. Garden
102,000
30
University of Texas
105,000
10
105,000
University of Wisconsin
120,000
50
90,000
Illinois Nat. Hist. Survey
Missouri Botanical Garden
Miami University
Total
GRAND TOTAL
1,341,000
35,000
NSF-BRC, NSF-PBI
274,000
1,224,000
2,565,000
Project management
• Steering Committee of 10 PIs
▫ Toby Schuh (AMNH) Committee Chair
▫ First TCN meeting Oct. 29-30th in NY
• Full-time Project Manager at AMNH
▫ Daily project management, training of entomology
partners, & centralized georeferencing
• Full-time Project Coordinator at NYBG
▫ Training of botany partners, barcoding of NY specimens
and database all herbarium specimens for all partner
institutions
• Digitization assistants
▫ Hourly staff at all partner institutions to image or
database specimens
Infrastructure
• Use existing infrastructure for hardware and software at
each institution
• Each institution will use existing databases and imaging
stations or share with partner institutions
• Use existing Storage Area Networks at NYBG & AMNH
(Mirror the PBI AMNH database at UCR)
• Use an existing web portal for data integration (Discover
Life) as modeled by AMNH’s NSF PBI Plants & Bugs
project, plus send copies to iDigBio, GBIF & other
networks
• Looking forward to working with solutions and tools
developed by iDigBio & others
Plants
Plants Workflow
• Specimens are barcoded, given a filed as name, and
imaged at partner institutions
• Image files are sent to NY
• Each image file gets a database record with the
institution, barcode number, filed as determination,
and preliminary OCR of the label
▫ Using Tropicos from Missouri Botanical Garden as
our names authority file
• NY Project Coordinator completes the partial records
• Send DarwinCore to DiscoverLife and back to each
partner institution
Imaging Station – 90 specimens/hour
How do we complete & georeference
1,200,000+ partial records?
• Send image files through SALIX/HERBIS
• Merge existing partner datasets and expect
duplicates
• Scatter, Gather, Reconcile; FilteredPush
• Crowd sourcing & citizen scientists
• Georeferencing tools: GEOLocate,
BioGeomancer & others
• All ideas welcome!
Bottlenecks
• Curation
▫ Outdated names, specimens of the same species filed
under more than one name
• Combined data
▫ Duplicates and differing names – how to know which is
correct, how to report discrepancies back to home
institutions
• File transfer
▫ What’s the best way to move 1,000,000 images to NY?
• Long-term archival image storage for all institutions?
▫ Potentially 36+ TB of raw files
Bugs
Bugs Workflow
• Organize specimens by
collection event
• Pin barcodes to each
specimen
• Perform data entry for
all specimens
• Take close up images of
representative
specimens of every
species
AMNH Matrix-code labels
Databasing
Use existing online PBI database for most data entry
Streamlined Interface for Rapid Data Entry
• Taxon names
• Locality data
• Collection Events
• Specimen Data
• Host names
Link directly to host plant images
Collection site
Living host plant
Voucher specimen
Imaging
• Image representative
specimens for each
species
• Use existing imaging
stations at partner
institutions
• About 30% of Hemiptera
are complete
• Expect to produce about
20,000 new images
Combine datasets in Discover Life
• PBI database is already set
up as a data provider to
Discover Life
• Generates species pages
that include specimen
data, maps, and images
• Creates a linkage between
host/parasite/parasitoid
data
• Updates PBI data every 24
hours to deliver up-to-date
information
What can be done with these 4,000,000+
combined data records?
• Conservation biology: management decision making
• Systematics: species distributions
• Biogeography: large data pool for studies of
endemism
• Ecology: host-herbivore-parasitoid relationships and
origins
• Agricultural sciences: invasive/pest species data and
management, identifications at ports
• Climate change studies: ecological niche modeling;
phenological changes; distributional changes
Thank you, NSF!
Contact Us
Toby Schuh (schuh@amnh.org)
Rob Naczi (rnaczi@nybg.org)
Melissa Tulig (mtulig@nybg.org)