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The James Smithson Project


On behalf of the National Museum of Natural History, we thank the James Smithson Society for its generous support for the biodiversity information dissemination efforts by the Diptera Unit in the Department of Entomology and Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture. The scientists of this unit work together to produce basic and applied research on flies as well as caring for our collections.

With the funds provided by the James Smithson Society Grant, our dipterists will conduct a pilot study on the dissemination and repatriation of specimen-based natural history information. Costa Rica was selected as the target to aid their national effort towards the sustainable use and conservation of wild biodiversity. The Diptera Unit, through the work of Jennifer E. Fairman under the direction of Drs. Mathis and Thompson, will provide a species inventory of the Smithsonian collections of Diptera, with an indication of those from Costa Rica. In addition, a specimen-label-data inventory of selected groups of flies from Costa Rica will be provided. These inventories will be documented by images of typical specimens. The last stage of the project will be dedicated to preparing the databases and images for dissemination via CD-ROM disks and on the INTERNET using our Gopher and World-Wide-Web interfaces.

Biodiversity holds the promise of sustainable development for the world. We acknowledge the James Smithson Society for supporting our efforts to increase our knowledge of biodiversity and the sharing of that knowledge among nations.

Terrestrial arthropods provide the broadest and finest-scale description of the biosphere as there are more species and individuals with longer histories and greater variation. Thus for entomology, our challenge is to manage the data associated with our specimens efficiently and effectively to increase knowledge and to disseminate the derived information. Using flies, one of the major groups of arthropods in size and importance to man, we will address this challenge.

The award granted by the James Smithson Society will help us meet the challenge. Our project will explore new and innovative approaches to disseminate specimen-based knowledge held within the Smithsonian's vast collections by creating various data inventories to be placed on CD-ROM disks and the INTERNET. We will seek to aid Costa Rica's efforts to utilize wild biodiversity for sustainable development. Given its success, a model for the repatriatization and dissemination of biodiversity information will be established for entomology.

Jennifer Elizabeth Fairman, Scienitific Illustrator/Web Designer
Dr. Wayne N. Mathis, Systematic Entomologist
Dr. F. Christian Thompson, Systematic Entomologist

Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution


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Content by F. Christian Thompson

Last Updated: August 19, 1999 by Jennifer E. Fairman