What's New -- 2001
What's New -- 2001
December 2001
Updates were made to Classification of Scale Insects to reflect updated numbers of Diaspididae and Asterolecaniidae.
November 2001
The Cerococcidae, Eriococcidae, Kermesidae and Ortheziidae families have been updated. A new version of our reference file now contains more than 15,400 records. A new version of the Biographies Scale Workers is also online.
October 2001
We added exciting new query changes to ScaleNet! First, we added the query Search for Scales with Words in Remarks. This query allows you to search for any word or group of words that have been used in any remarks field. You could search for all uses of "pineapple" or "multilocular" or even an author's name. Secondly, we enhanced the References with Words in Article Title/Journal Title/Notes query. The search term(s) will now be highlighted in the query results, making it much easier to find what you were looking for. Lastly, we are still working on the clearest and most helpful way to display invasive species data. Due to this, we have tweaked the formats of the Distribution of a Scale and Scales in a Region querries.
We also added links to photos from the International Symposium of Scale Insect Studies IX in Padua, Italy, September 2-8, 2001. The links are on the home page and the queries page. The photos and web design are by Gary Miller. They are hosted on the SEL coccoidea web page.
August 2001
We revised Background Information, Query Index, The ScaleNet Homepage and Hosts, Natural Enemies and Associates of a Scale Query. We added the new Poetry page which houses all tributes to scale insects and currently contains work by Jack Beardsely and Al Grigarick.
We also updated all families on ScaleNet. Due to the hard work of Karen Veilleux the reference file now includes more than 15,000 records. Specific pages updated include Links to Other Sites, Biographies Scale Workers and Classification of Scale Insects.
June 2001
Instructions on the Citation of ScaleNet have been clarified with new examples added. Authorship varies depending on what part of ScaleNet you are citing, so please read this page carefully. We are still tweaking the distribution queries and their newly incorporated invasive status. We anticipate changes to these queries in the next few weeks.
May 2001
Extra feature added to Hosts, Natural Enemies & Associates of a Scale Query! This query used to only provide a list of ALL scales in ALL families that matched your query input. If you asked about scales on Quercus you got a list of ALL the scales on Quercus, which could be quite a long list. Now, you can restrict your query to only species of Kermes on Quercus or all the Coccidae species on Pinaceae. The ability to make these restrictions in your query will save time and effort sorting through results that are not of interest to you.
We have have added the new extinct family Kukaspididae bringing the number of families online up to 27. All existing families have been updated. Our updated reference file now contains 14,718 records. As always, we are very grateful to Karen Veilleux for her hard work. We are still working out some kinks in the new indicator of introduced species and expect them to be resolved shortly. Pages updated include: Citation of ScaleNet, Sources of Information, Collaborators and Their Organizations, Publications Resulting from the Database, Classification and Links to Other Sites.
APRIL 2001:
Newly added to ScaleNet is an indicator of introduced species. In the distribution section of a species catalogue, localities where a species is introduced will have an asterisk. The entry could look like this:
DISTRIBUTION: Nearctic: United States of America (Florida [Morris1925], Georgia [Miller1985b], Louisiana [Morris1952], Virginia [Miller1985b]). Palaearctic: *Germany [Voigt2000].
Note that Germany is the location where the species has been introduced. There are many instances of introduced species that will not be noted as such. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to go back and systematically emend previous entries, but will add new data in this format and will correct older entries as we come across them. Records of introduced species can be accessed using the Distribution of a Scale Query and the Scales in a Region Query. For further information about this new feature and how it has been incorporated into our queries, see Query Descriptions.
MARCH 2001:
We have added yet another piece of data to the information we provide. Reference entries now give not only the language in which an article is written, but also the language(s) of the abstracts or summaries.
FEBRUARY 2001:
The updated reference files now contain over 14,450 references!!! Thanks to Karen Veilleux who works so hard on this task. Family files updated include Aclerdidae, Beesoniidae, Carayonemidae, Cerococcidae, Coccidae, Conchaspididae, Dactylopiidae, Eriococcidae, Kermesidae, Kerriidae, Lecanodiaspidae and Orthezidae. New families added at this time are Grimaldiellidae, Inkaidae, Jersicoccidae, Labiococcidae and Stictococcidae. Specific pages updated include Biographies of Scale Workers, Classification , Citation of ScaleNet , Sources of Information , Collaborators and Their Organizations and Publications Resulting from the database.
We continue work on the Asterolecaniidae, which are almost ready for placement in ScaleNet, but our main efforts are to finish entering information on the Diaspididae which is slightly less than half of the total species in the Coccoidea. This process is well underway in Israel and the US.
NEW QUERIES:
We have recently made several powerful enhancements to the query system in ScaleNet. The first is called "Search for a String of Letters in a Species/Subspecies Name." It allows entry of any consecutive letters in a name (i.e., a string of letters) and gives a resulting table with all of the names containing the string. For example, entry of the string "dan" gives a table containing 22 species names including "DANzigae" three times, "panDANi" four times and "DANielaferreroae" once. When a client knows the approximate spelling of a species name but is not certain how it is spelled in ScaleNet, this query can be very useful. For example, it often is a problem to know if an adjectival species name ends in an "a", "us", "um" etc. Use of this query through entry of only a portion of the name will help the client find the name and the needed information.
The second query enhancement is a system that allows the client to enter variable spellings of an author name and still find all of the papers by that author regardless of the alternate spelling used. This whole area is a nightmare that just will not quit!!! Names such as: Borchsenius and Borksenius, Jashenko and Jashchenko and Yashenko and Yashchenko; Gómez-Menor and Gómez-Menor Ortega and Ortega and Menor; Kozár and Kozar; Boyer de Fonscolombe and Fonscolombe are used inconsistently in the literature. In many cases it is difficult to make informed decisions concerning the correct spelling. In fact, we now realize that we have multiple spellings of certain names even in ScaleNet. Since these various spellings are used throughout the database we have decided to develop a table of alternate spellings to rectify the problem rather than arbitrarily deciding which spelling is correct. This table is accessible from the References for an Author and Scales described by an Author pages. Also on these same query pages you will note a new button which allows a client to request the computer to look for alternative spellings of the author name. Results will tell the client the spelling that has been used in ScaleNet if it is different from the one input by the client.
While working on the author issue, we discovered that a client can enter part of the author’s name as a string of letters and still receive all of the publications or names described by the author(s) with that string of letters in their names. This opportunity allows clients to solve some of the problems mentioned above without having to worry about alternate spellings. For example, entry of "senius" (rather than having to decide whether it should be Borchsenius or Borksenius) in the author last name field in any of the queries "Scales Described by an Author", "References by an Author", or "References with Words in the Article Title/Journal Title/Notes" will give all of the requested information in the database by Borchsenius.