Where The Data Came From

The Hopkins U.S. System Index (HUSSI) provides access to the Hopkins U.S. System, a collection of written records containing information on thousands of insect and damage specimens from forests or wood products taken mainly in the United States. A small percentage of records are from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and other regions of the world. These insect or damage specimens were collected by entomologists in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and collaborators over a period of more than 80 years. Information in Hopkins U.S. System records includes location, date, taxon, insect- and plant host association, and other information in tabular or narrative form. The specimens to which these records refer are housed in collections at several Forest Service installations nationwide; at the U.S. National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and at several universities.

The Hopkins System Updated

The flow of information into the Hopkins System files has diminished significantly in the past decade, perhaps because of a gradual shift of program emphasis from basic, descriptive research to more quantitative, management-oriented studies. From a more practical view, another reason may have been the lack of incentive to continue to use a seemingly antiquated, labor-intensive system of handwritten or typed records...especially in today's environment of electronic databases and processing systems.

In 1986, concern for the safety and integrity of the Hopkins System files prompted the Forest Insect and Disease Research Staff (FIDR), Washington, D.C., to take steps to preserve the information contained in the System. The intent was also to consolidate the information and make it more useful and accessible to the scientific community. About 153,000 Hopkins U.S. System cards and nearly 10,000 notebook pages throughout the USDA Forest Service and at the ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory were microfilmed. Microfiche sets of the file cards were distributed to Forest Service labs and field units. To make the information in the Hopkins files more accessable, FIDR began building a computerized database (HUSSI) of the Hopkins System in 1987. The database now contains about 61,000 records describing information in Hopkins files held by Forest Service units. Records held by the Agricultural Research Service, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, have not yet been entered in the database.

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