scholarly journals ALICE, MALICE and VILE: High throughput insect specimen digitisation using angled imaging techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steen Dupont ◽  
Benjamin Price
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Image Capture ◽  
Specimen Handling ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Insect Collection

The world’s natural history collections contain at least 2 billion specimens (Ariño 2010), representing a unique data source for answering fundamental scientific questions about ecological, evolutionary, and geological processes. Unlocking this treasure trove of data, stored in thousands of museum drawers and cabinets, is crucial to help map a sustainable future for ourselves and the natural systems on which we depend. The rate-limiting steps in the digitisation of natural history collections often involve specimen handling, due to their fragile nature. Insects comprise the single largest collection type in the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) and in many other collections, reflecting their global diversity and multiplicity. The NHM pinned insect collection, estimated at 25 million specimens, will take over 700 person years to digitise at current rates (Price et al. 2018: estimated from Blagoderov et al. 2017). In order to ramp up digitisation, we have developed ALICE for Angled Label Image Capture and Extraction from pinned insects. This multi-camera setup (Fig. 1) and associated software processing pipeline, enables primary data capture from angled images, without removal of the labels from the specimen pin. As a result ALICE enables a single user to sustainably digitise (add a catalogue label, image and prepare images for database import) over 800 specimens per day (Price et al. 2018), allowing us to digitally unlock large parts of the insect collection (e.g., Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera) at up to seven times the previous rate. We are continuing to refine hardware approaches to reduce specimen handling and extract data, for both human and machine interpretation, from labels without removing them from the object. More recently we are also trialing multiple mirrors in our Mirror Angled Label Image Capture Equipment (MALICE) (Fig. 2) or a rotating stage for our Vial Image Label Extraction (VILE) (Fig. 3) aimed at spirit-preserved specimens housed in vials. In this talk, we will outline the current approaches in use at the Natural History Museum, next generation prototypes, and challenges that need to be addressed before these techniques can be fully optimized.

scholarly journals ALICE: Angled Label Image Capture and Extraction for high throughput insect specimen digitisation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wills Price ◽  
Steen Dupont ◽  
Elizabeth Louise Allan ◽  
Vladimir Blagoderov ◽  
Alice Jenny Butcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Image Capture ◽  
Specimen Handling ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Single User ◽  
Data Source

The world’s natural history collections contain at least 2 billion specimens, representing a unique data source for answering fundamental scientific questions about ecological, evolutionary, and geological processes. Unlocking this treasure trove of data, stored in thousands of museum drawers and cabinets, is crucial to help map a sustainable future for ourselves and the natural systems on which we depend. The rate-limiting steps in the digitisation of natural history collections often involve specimen handling due to their fragile nature. Insects comprise the single largest collection type in the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), reflecting their global diversity. The NHM pinned insect collection, estimated at 25 million specimens, will take over 700 person years to digitise at current rates. In order to ramp up digitisation we have developed ALICE for Angled Label Image Capture and Extraction. This multi-camera setup and associated software processing pipeline enables primary data capture from angled images, without removal of the labels from the specimen pin. As a result ALICE enables a single user to sustainably image over 1,000 specimens per day, allowing us to digitally unlock the insect collections at an unprecedented rate.

scholarly journals Imaging natural history museum collections from the bottom up: 3D print technology facilitates imaging of fluid-stored arthropods with flatbed scanners

ZooKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 795 ◽  
pp. 49-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patina K. Mendez ◽  
Sangyeon Lee ◽  
Chris E. Venter
Keyword(s):  
Image Quality ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Laboratory Equipment ◽  
History Museum ◽  
3D Print ◽  
Natural History Collection ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Microscope Slides

Availability of 3D-printed laboratory equipment holds promise to improve arthropod digitization efforts. A 3D-printed specimen scanning box was designed to image fluid-based arthropod collections using a consumer-grade flatbed scanner. The design was customized to accommodate double-width microscope slides and printed in both Polylactic Acid (PLA) and nylon (Polyamide). The workflow with two or three technicians imaged Trichoptera lots in batches of six scanning boxes. Individual images were cropped from batch imagess using an R script. PLA and nylon both performed similarly with no noticeable breakdown of the plastic; however, dyed nylon leeched color into the ethanol. The total time for handling, imaging, and cropping was ~8 minutes per vial, including returning material to vials and replacing ethanol. Image quality at 2400 dpi was the best and revealed several diagnostic structures valuable for partial identifications with higher utility if structures of the genitalia were captured; however, lower resolution scans may be adequate for natural history collection imaging. Image quality from this technique is similar to other natural history museum imaging techniques; yet, the scanning approach may have wider applications to morphometrics because of lack of distortion. The approach can also be applied to image vouchering for biomonitoring and other ecological studies.

THE CATALOG OF THE MINERALOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD II (1747–1792): COLLECTING AND LEARNING IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNARITA FRANZA ◽  
ROSANNA FABOZZI ◽  
LETIZIA VEZZOSI ◽  
LUCIANA FANTONI ◽  
GIOVANNI PRATESI
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Metal Content ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Historical Archive ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
The University

ABSTRACT The Collectio Mineralium (1765) currently preserved at the Historical Archive of the Natural History Museum of the University of Firenze, is the unpublished catalog of the mineralogical collection that belonged to Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792). The catalog is a 110-page register, with the golden emblem of the House of Habsburg at the center of the binding, containing information about 242 mineralogical samples. Each specimen is carefully described (i.e., habit, metal content, product value) and its locality given. The interpretation of the text has also returned information on most of the mining deposits in the Austro-Hungarian territories in the eighteenth century. Therefore, the interpretation of this catalog—that on the basis of the literature appears to be the first catalog of a collection belonged to a Habsburg emperor—represents an important step toward enhancing our understanding of Habsburg natural history collections and reflected the transition from wonder-rooms to commodity collecting. Leopold's private collection was no longer an ‘instrument of wonder’ but it became representative of scientific collecting characterized by the establishment of systematic mineralogy, and by a careful economic evaluation of the mineralogical samples collected as a symbol of the power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

scholarly journals The Müritzeum in Waren (Müritz): natural history museum and modern nature discovery centre

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 77-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Küster
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Freshwater Species ◽  
Lake District ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Northeastern Germany ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. The Müritzeum is a nature discovery centre and a museum in the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District. It is the first natural history museum in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with natural history collections that are over 150 years old, and are still growing today. The collections contain about 290 000 specimens from the fields of botany, zoology and geology. An extensive library and an archive are also part of the museum. Collecting, preserving and researching natural history are our main spheres of activity. The exhibition in the Müritzeum offers the visitor a comprehensive insight into the development of the nature and landscape of northeastern Germany and of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Lake Müritz region in particular. The largest aquarium for indigenous freshwater species in Germany enables visitors to imagine themselves in the underwater world of the Mecklenburg Lake District.

Zoological material for John Lawson's “Compleat History” of Carolina (1710–1711): specimens recorded in Hans Sloane's catalogues

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-345
Author(s):  
Marcus B. Simpson ◽  
Sallie W. Simpson ◽  
David W. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Natural History ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Museum Staff

As part of his plan for a “Compleat History” of the region, John Lawson, Surveyor-General of North Carolina, collected plants and animals in 1710 and 1711 from Virginia and North Carolina and shipped them to James Petiver in London. After Petiver's death in 1718, his collection was acquired by Hans Sloane and subsequently incorporated into the natural history collections in the British Museum. The Sloane herbarium, now at the Natural History Museum, London, contains more than 300 previously reported botanical specimens attributed to Lawson, but details of his zoological collecting have not heretofore been documented. Two of Sloane's manuscript catalogues of “Fossils” include at least 34 specimens that appear to have been among those sent by Lawson to Petiver. These Lawson specimens were probably discarded or destroyed by British Museum staff in the 1700s or early 1800s. The Sloane catalogues nevertheless provide evidence that Lawson had begun work on his ambitious plan for a natural history of Carolina. Lawson's untimely death in September 1711 brought an abrupt end to the project, and Petiver apparently never used the zoological material he received from Lawson.

THE INSECT COLLECTION OF THE ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY

1938 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 67-70
Author(s):  
F. A. Urquhart
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Royal Ontario Museum ◽  
Insect Collection

The insect collection of the Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology, at present comprising some 250,000 specimens, had its inception in the insect collection of University of Toronto Biological Museum. This collection was started by Professor William Hinks, first Professor of Natural History, when he established a natural history museum in 1853. At that time various collections of insects, mostly confined to exotic material, were donated or purchased.

Edward Heron-Allen FRS (1861–1943): a review of his scientific career, with an annotated bibliography of his foraminiferal publications

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Hodgkinson ◽  
John E. Whittaker
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Scientific Career ◽  
History Museum ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACT: In spite of his many other interests, Edward Heron-Allen also worked for nearly 50 years as a scientist on minute shelled protists, called foraminifera, much of it in an unpaid, unofficial capacity at The Natural History Museum, London, and notably in collaboration with Arthur Earland. During this career he published more than 70 papers and obtained several fellowships, culminating in 1919 in his election to the Royal Society. Subsequently, he bequeathed his foraminiferal collections and fine library to the Museum, and both are housed today in a room named in his honour. In this paper, for the first time, an assessment of his scientific accomplishments is given, together with a full annotated bibliography of his publications held in the Heron-Allen Library. This is part of a project to produce a bibliography of his complete publications, recently initiated by the Heron-Allen Society.

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