The BUGS project: New Zealand terrestrial invertebrate literature 1775-1993

This document provides an overview of the BUGS bibliography and database which deal with the literature on New Zealand terrestrial invertebrates.

This version was prepared by Trevor Crosby, 31 March 1996.

Trevor K. Crosby
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland

Graeme W. Ramsay
67 Kohu Road, Titirangi, Auckland

Update 7 September 2008. Visit www.bugz.org.nz to access and view page images of the papers in this bibliography.

Introduction

BUGS is the name we have given to the bibliography and database which list and index the information in publications about New Zealand insects and other non-marine invertebrates, spanning the 219-year period 1775-1993. The 1992 versions of BUGS comprise about 14,500 references, which have been published in about 950 different periodicals and numerous books, plus approximately 750 university theses and projects. A further 1500 references, mainly for the period 1985-1993, were added in the 1994 version of the BUGS database published on the Spectrum CD-ROM.

All written sources in the public domain are included in BUGS, both core scientific papers and popular accounts. We estimate that about 95% of the core literature and at least 60% of the popular literature has been included for the major invertebrate groups. No value judgements have been made concerning the quality and status of information in the references, as such judgements are the prerogative of users.

Every aspect of information about insects and their relatives has been covered, including all the early literature from as far back as the publications dealing with insects collected on Captain James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand in 1769. A thesaurus of more than 4000 terms has been used to index the information content of references in a standardised form.

Literature concerning both endemic and introduced species is included: many pests of agricultural and horticultural significance have been introduced from the Northern Hemisphere and Australia, and form a significant proportion of the New Zealand economic literature.

The parts of BUGS

BUGS consists of 2 main parts:

  1. the printed BUGS bibliography, and
  2. the database "BUGS on-disc".

Each part complements the usefulness and capabilities of the other, and allows information to be accessed at different levels of detail. The database allows users to search more than 4000 different topics in a standardised form, in addition to all the words making up the citation details for all the references. Broad general subjects include medical and veterinary aspects concerned with invertebrates, vertebrates as hosts or predators of invertebrates, chemicals and other materials and techniques used in pest control, as well as references to a particular pest species or families.

1. BUGS bibliography

This is the ink-on-paper version of the references in the original "BUGS on-line" database as of mid-1990, and was published 14 February 1992 (Ramsay, G. W.; Crosby, T. K. 1992: Bibliography of New Zealand terrestrial invertebrates 1775-1985, and guide to the associated information retrieval database BUGS. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of New Zealand 11: 1-440. ISSN 0110-4527).

The references are arranged in 19 independent sections, each being a separate bibliography (e.g., Coleoptera (beetles), Arachnida (mites and spiders), Mollusca (slugs and snails), and Pesticides). The detailed index for the bibliography is provided by "BUGS on-disc".

The value of the printed version of BUGS is that it provides users with an easily accessible version with which to check reference details. "BUGS on-disc" provides such details, but as many users are aware of the main workers in their areas of expertise, the checking of published lists is the most efficient way to confirm reference details.

The book also provides details about the rules and conventions used in standardising the citations of BUGS; a list of journal titles; and the thesaurus of 4000 terms or content descriptors (these terms provide standard search terms for "BUGS on-disc").

2. "BUGS on-disc"

This is the CD-ROM electronic publication of the database, together with all parts of BUGS bibliography except the reference sections. It was first published on 4 September 1992, as part of an electronic publishing venture initiated by Dr Jaap Jasperse (SIR Publishing, Wellington). This disc is the first New Zealand-authored CD-ROM publication (Crosby, T. K.; Ramsay, G. W. 1992: BUGS on-disc: index to information in the literature on New Zealand terrestrial invertebrates 1775-1985, 37 Mb, in Jasperse, J. A. (Ed.) Samples of New Zealand science on CD-ROM. Wellington, SIR Publishing. ISBN 0-908654-34-0). It is a companion publication to the ink-on-paper BUGS bibliography cited above.

An updated version was published in November 1994 by SIR Publishing, again under an initiative of Dr Jaap Jasperse. This contained a further 1500 references, mainly for the period 1985-1993. (Crosby, T. K.; Ramsay, G. W. 1994: BUGS on-disc: updated bibliography of New Zealand terrestrial invertebrates 1775-1993, 47 Mb, in Jasperse, J. A. (Ed.) Spectrum: New Zealand science and technology databases. Wellington, SIR Publishing. ISBN 0-908645-51-0).

Publishing a database like this makes it more widely available than a conventional on-line database. Unlike most on-line databases, there are no network connection fees to pay to gain access once you have purchased a disc. The absence of connection fees means that searches can be done by end-users rather than predominantly by library professionals. Users are more inclined to explore search possibilities and browse the results much more than they would on on-line databases.

"BUGS on-disc" is searchable by anyone with access to an IBM-compatible PC computer and a CD-ROM drive. The retrieval software is for the 1992 version is ROMWARE, supplied by Nimbus Information Systems, U.S.A. (at no cost for this experimental venture).

Occasional users should find the search methodology of "BUGS on-disc" using word indexes much easy to use.

The thesaurus content descriptors for each reference are shown in hierarchical form with "BUGS on-disc", and they can be retrieved together with the reference details. This gives users a good indication of the contents of each reference and should facilitate assessment of the relevance of each.

In addition, illustrations of insects published in BUGS bibliography included with the 1992 version of "BUGS on-disc", demonstrate the potential of this form of electronic publication and its ability to bring together information of diverse forms.

Special features of the BUGS database

We consider the special features of the BUGS project to be the completeness of its coverage, especially for New Zealand-published material, and the detail to which the information content of each reference has been indexed. We employed a very thorough bibliographic approach to ensure we had good coverage of all the literature. As well we used a hierarchical numerical system to record the full information content of references in a standardised manner, and this means that search requests are simplified.

Early literature is important. Older findings may be reassessed in the light of present-day knowledge, and BUGS facilitates this process. For example, it lists information sources about how pest problems were dealt with in the days before DDT, which has great relevance for today's organic agriculture. Most other databases do not deal with literature published before the mid- 1960s.

Each standard thesaurus term has a numerical code number, constructed in a hierarchical manner. For example, a reference allocated the single content descriptor "biomass" (for which the hierarchical code is 06-05-03-02-01) is automatically listed in all of the following subject headings:

and is retrieved under any of them. Similarly, the mite family "Tetranychidae" has the code 12-11-02-04-56, and this means it is automatically listed and retrievable under all the following subject headings:

In "BUGS on-disc" the numerical codes at each level have been "exploded" so that codes of all levels are shown together with their subject headings, as shown in the examples above for "biomass" and "Tetranychidae".

Availability of publications

Publications from the Entomological Society of NZ, including the BUGS bibliography and BUGS on disc, are available from Manaaki Whenua Press.

Comments and queries about this document to Trevor Crosby, curator NZAC / Email Send email to Trevor Crosby