New Zealand Lepidoptera project: new access to collection information
The Internet offers new opportunities in delivering image and text information about specimens in biological collections to users. As part of a larger project examining methods of providing on-line access to specimen information, identification-quality images and collection information for 1800 primary type specimens (name bearers) of New Zealand's indigenous moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) are now accessible via the Internet.
For the first time anyone in the world can check on-line the identity of nearly all of New Zealand's Lepidoptera species. The barrier of distance has been largely eliminated, as a user can view an image of a name-bearing specimen irrespective of whether the name-bearer itself is part of The Natural History Museum collection in London, or it is housed in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection in Auckland or another New Zealand collection.
Side-by-side comparisons of images can be made on computer monitors, allowing users to check for differences between related species, or to confirm that different names are synonymous and refer to the same species. The images and collection information can be printed as required.
Systematists will always need to examine the physical specimens in their detailed studies, but on-line information in a 'cyber-collection' similar to this will be of value to many users who wish to make a first assessment of the identity of their specimens.
Funding Source: New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology.
Key FRST programme: Nationally Significant Biological Collections (C09401).
Key contact: Trevor Crosby
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