What's New
What's New
January 15, 2005
It has been awhile since we updated this section. When Maren Gimpel was working on the project she was very methodical about keeping this section up-to-date, but Alessandra Rung and I have been concentrating on the development of some expert systems and some of the ScaleNet needs have been given a lower priority. Since the last message we have received a grant from GBIF to finish the first round of data entry in ScaleNet. This should be done in the next couple of months. Yair Ben-Dov has been updating many of his families and we have been up dating our data on a quarterly basis. We hope to add the Margarodidae and Asterolecaniidae soon. These will be on line when they have been published.
We have nearly finished the expert system on scale families. It can be accessed through ScaleNet or at
http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/ScaleKeys/lcd/html/index.html.
The most recent publication resulting from the ScaleNet initiative is A Systematic catalogue of the Diaspididae (armoured scale insects) of the world, subfamilies Aspidiotinae, Comstockiellinae and Odonaspidinae by Y. Ben-Dov and V. German 2003. It is available from Intercept Ltd of Andover, U.K. This is the second in a series of catalogues resulting from ScaleNet. It is available online or the publisher can be reached as follows:
Intercept Ltd.
Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers and Booksellers
P.O. Box 716, Andover, Hampshire SP10 1YG, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 1264 334748
Fax: +44 (0) 1264 334058
http://www.intercept.co.uk
Volumes that will be coming out in the next few months are the Margarodidae, the Asterolecaniidae, a volume on the Cerococcidae, Halimococcidae, Kermesidae, Micrococcidae, Ortheziidae, Phenacoleachiidae, Phoenicococcidae, and Stictococcidae, and the other half of the armored scales.
February 11, 2003
Gary Miller for the past three months has been helping with new data input into the system. We have been learning the various idiosyncrasies of BASIS and ScaleNet. The Israeli team is planning to complete the retrospective data entry for their families within the next year that will finish the first round of data entry for ScaleNet.
We have written two grant proposals to complete the retrospective data entry process and to add character information and images for the first time.
November 6, 2002
The most troublesome news for ScaleNet is that Maren Gimpel has gone to bigger and better things. She was the primary force behind ScaleNet at the Beltsville location and after three months of working without her, SHE IS GREATLY MISSED!
A contract with Jane Lemmer (now Laroussi) from Carson & Associates has just been completed. The work completed included documentation activities that have made life easier without Maren. Some items that might be noticeable in using the query system are: 1) the option not to show detail in the Region Query (i.e., if you want a synoptic list of the species that occur in Australia, you can select the "no" button for "show all subunit records" and you will receive only one record for each species not all of the records for each state (this option is available if you select the "yes' button); 2) a temporary warning that certain queries may take a long time to complete; 3) the cursor is automatically placed in the first field of a query; 4) the valid name query has been altered to more effectively deal with names in the categories of incertae sedis, nomen nudum that is unplaced, taxon removed from a family, and unclassified species that have no valid genus in the family where they currently are placed.
August 16, 2002
Ask and you shall receive! Now, by popular demand! Approximately half of the Diaspididae are now on line. This family was split by the ScaleNet teams: Bet Dagen is working on the second half of the Borchsenius 1966 catalaogue (subfamilies Aspidiotinae and Odonaspidinae) and Beltsville has completed the first half of the catalogue (subfamilies Diaspidinae and Leucaspidinae). PLEASE NOTE: All queries involving species of Diaspididae must be undertaken with caution, due to the incomplete data. If you receive no results, you may be searching for an insect that is in the one of the subfamilies not yet online. Also, query results such as "Scales in a Region" or "Scales on a host" will not be comprehensive.
In addition to the new Diaspididae data, we have updated the Orthezidae and also the references which now number over 16,660!
July 3, 2002
Data has been updated for the Eriococcidae, Cerococcidae, Kermesidae, Phoenicococcidae and Orthezidae as well as the reference file. We now have almost 16,500 references on file! Updates to some additional families and to a few pages of this site will be made later this month. As always, please alert us to any problems or errors you see on ScaleNet.
May 31, 2002
A new section has been added to ScaleNet and its something we think is a great resource. On the Background Information page under the heading "General Information" is a link called Location of Type Material. This page contains information on the whereabouts of type material of as many authors as possible. Select the appropriate link based on the last name of the author in question. Find your author and see which institutions hold his type material. Also on this page are several great resources such as a link to a search engine of insect collections of the world run by the Bishop Musuem, a list of some published inventories of some institutions and a list of all museums/collections containing scale insect type material. As always, any corrections or additions to the information would be greatly appreciated.
Small changes have been made to the Links page as well as to the Background information page. A full update of ScaleNet is planned for late June, 2002.
April 15, 2002
The biographies of scale insect workers have been updated.
April 5, 2002
Have updated the Aclerdidae and Kerridae. Our next major update of family data will be in late June.
March 25, 2002
Small change made to Classification of Scale Insects to reflect updated numbers of Diaspididae.
Updated versions of Cerococcidae, Eriococcidae, Halimococcidae, Kermesidae, Micrococcidae, Orthezidae, Phenacoleachidae, Phoenicococcidae and Stictococcidae have been placed online. Also, updated references now include over 16,200 entries. Thanks to Karen Veilleux for tireless work on this aspect of ScaleNet! Updated versions of some additional families expected within the month.
A Systematic catalogue of the Eriococcidae (felt scales) (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of the world is still available from Intercept Ltd of Andover, U.K. We intend for this to be the first in a series of hard-copy catalogues resulting from ScaleNet. It is available online or the publisher can be reached as follows:
Intercept Ltd.
Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers and Booksellers
P.O. Box 716, Andover, Hampshire SP10 1YG, U.K.
Tel: +44 (0) 1264 334748
Fax: +44 (0) 1264 334058
http://www.intercept.co.uk
What's New -- 2001
What's New -- 2000
What's New -- 1999
What's New -- 1998
What's New -- 1997