Data Set Name:
Short Description:
The Australian Helminthological Collection
The Australian Helminthological Collection (AHC) of the South Australian Museum includes
approximately 42,000 registered lots of helminths (e.g. nematodes, tapeworms, and other parasitic
flatworms). Most helminths in the collection are from Australian native vertebrates, but there is material
from Australian domestic and zoo animals, livestock and humans and from hosts collected overseas.
Many of the worms in this collection were donated by one of Australia’s most famous parasitologists and
zoologists, Professor T. Harvey Johnston. Some of Johnston’s specimens were collected when he
travelled to Antarctica as Chief Zoologist with Sir Douglas Mawson in 1929 as part of the British,
Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions.
Material is either kept in bottles of ethanol or mounted on microscope slides. The AHC is used frequently
by researchers and students, nationally and internationally, for taxonomic and biodiversity studies.
Update Frequency:
Static - not updated, exported for the purposes of Unleashed competition
Last Updated:
April 2013
Organisation:
South Australian Museum
File Location:
http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/unleashedadl/SAMA_parasitology_April2013.csv
File Format:
CSV
Author:
Mentors:
Alexis Tindall alexis.tindall@sa.gov.au
Themes:
Helminths, parasites, biodiversity, science, wildlife, environment, taxonomy
Licence:
CC-BY-NC
Meta Data (How to use/interpret the data set)
The SA Museum keeps this data in a Microsoft Access database, and is in the process of migrating it to the KE EMu
collections management system. The in-house database includes records of specimen loans and more detailed taxonomic
information for many specimens. Only the specimen records have been exported for this open data competition.
How or why was the data collected? Any known issues or errors in the data?
This data catalogues the biological collections of the South Australian Museum. These specimens have been collected in
varied circumstances over the last 150+ years, but the digital databasing of these collections has only happened over the last
20 years or so. The SA Museum is constantly working to add to and improve their database. Across all collections there may
be further items that are not yet databased. Data is also constantly being improved and cleaned. Every effort is made to
ensure that data is as complete and accurate as possible but it remains the responsibility of the user to determine the data’s
fitness for purpose. For fine-grained scientific, environmental or ecological analysis it is recommended that users consult
directly with the relevant collections manager to discuss known problems.
Field definitions
Regno: SA Museum current Registration Number
original host: Scientific name of host at time of collection
current host name: scientific name of host species
habitat: Comments on habitat in which the specimen was found
ctry: Country (usually filled with state)
locality:Locality where this specimen was collected
date: Date of collection
collector: Collector
position: Position that the specimen was found on host, where known
pgrp: Higher taxonomic information
current parasite name: Currently valid scientific name of the specimen
status: Status of this specimen (if type or voucher)
previous parasite name: Previous scientific name of the specimen
stor: Method of storage (W: wet collections, usually stored in a solution of ethanol, S: microscope slide-mounted)
notes: Comments on specimen
identifier: Name of person who identified this specimen
date identified: Date identified
loans: Reference if specimen on loan
where: Collection storage area
shelf: Date last sighted
registration number: Previous registration number
donor: Donor
fieldno: Other numbers, usually applied in the field
date entered: Date registered