By Amanda Jeninga
UMinfo

It sounds like something out of a Sci-Fi novel, but it's happening right here at the University of Manitoba.

The curators of the J.B. Wallis Museum of Entomology are cataloguing their collection of over a million specimens using a bar code system similar to the one you see in the grocery store.

Information about each specimen is stored in a database making it easy to access and sort, share and update. The link to the information is a tiny, square bar code pinned to each specimen. The database is accessed and maintained through a piece of software called Biota.

The collection is a resource for environmentalists, scientists studying climate change and researchers in a broad range of fields including agriculture.

"The beauty of using insects is that there are so many species, but the downside is how the heck do you even keep track of them all," explained Rob Roughley, professor of entomology.

"Biota allows that kind of tracking. You have everything in electronic format so you can pull out information quickly and easily."

A big advantage of Biota is data need only be entered once, then used for many different functions. For example, right now the insects are sorted by species. If you were looking only for specimens found in a particular climate, you would have to check each specimen individually to see where it was captured. With Biota, all that information is just a few mouse-clicks away.

Specimens in the collection come from all around Manitoba and from adjacent provinces and territories. There are also special collections like a selection of ticks brought back from Zambia by a grad student.

"How anybody would find out about that without the database would be pure luck," Roughley said. "Unless people know me and know of my work, they wouldn't realize this resource is here at the University of Manitoba."

The insect database project was made possible through a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant received in August of 2000. Money was provided to set up the Biota system and to make improvements to facilities at the museum. So far, almost 25,000 specimens have been catalogued.

The decision to apply for the funding was a department-wide initiative helped along by significant support from the Office of Research Services. Roughley authored the proposal with the assistance of Barbara Crutchley, Senior Research Development Manager, who helped him through the grant application process.

Some of the kinds of research the database will support:

• Biological Control Research

Biological control is the use of organisms to control pests.

• Insect Biodiversity Research

Biodiversity is the number of kinds of organisms found in a given area. Insect biodiversity is a sensitive indicator of the influence of environmental management on an ecosystem.

• Climate Change Research

  One way to examine climate change is by means of documented, chronological comparisons of insects through time.

"The point of CFI is to provide the potential for innovation and hope that other people would grab hold of the dream to," said Roughley. "There are probably a lot of creative people out there who could use this information in ways I could not think of. The foresight of CFI is that it really does allow for the possibility of true innovation."

Quick facts about the J.B. Wallis Museum

• The museum is located on the second floor of the Animal Science building.
• The oldest specimen in the collection dates from 1896.
• J.B. Wallis was a school teacher with an inordinate interest in insects.
• He has been described as an amazing collector who epitomizes the spirit of of inquiry. Wallis was a graduate of the U of M.
• The museum is the third largest research collection of insects in Canada, and the largest collection west of Toronto.
• The collection has increased in size tenfold since 1980.

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