Out of Indochina: confirmed specimen record and first molecular identification of Psammophis indochinensis Smith, 1943 (Squamata, Psammophiidae) from Bali, Indonesia

Psammophis indochinensis Smith, 1943 was reported in the eastern Java and Bali of Indonesia despite its primary geographic range being in the Indochina region. We confirm its presence in Bali based on a newly collected specimen and provide morphological and genetic data. The specimen was found in a lowland, urban areas near open grassland habitat, which confirms the distribution of P. indochinensis along the northern coast of Bali. We note some character aberrations in the supralabials compared to Thailand specimens, suggesting an extended character. The basal clade position of P. indochinensis raises the possibility of an intercontinental dispersal scenario of this African-origin snake.

Specimens in a Broader Context: The National Ecological Observatory Network and the extended specimen

Community innovations in both specimen digitization (e.g., Morphbank; SlideAtlas; Inselect, Hudson et al. 2015) and data standards (e.g., the National Science Foundation initative "Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections", Page et al. 2015, Nelson and Shari 2019; Darwin Core (Darwin Core Task Group 2009)), have resulted in digitized specimens with rich contextual metadata and the capacity to share such specimen information widely. These extended specimens have allowed for the exploration of cross-scale research questions that traverse multiple taxonomic, spatial and temporal scales. As a relatively new collection organization, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON; Keller et al. 2008) has curated and archived >200,000 specimens to date and is projected to archive between 80,000 and 120,000 specimens annually through its 30-year, continental-scale environmental monitoring program. NEON has embraced the Extended Specimen paradigm (introduced by Webster 2017; NEON's implementation described in Lendemer et al. 2020), and each sample is physically and digitally curated from the point of collection enabling sample discoverability that maximizes specimen Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (the FAIR standard; Wilkinson et al. 2016). All archived specimens are associated with precise spatial and temporal information and (where available/applicable) NEON also integrates specimen images, morphometrics, genetic sequences and taxonomic data with the specimen records within a Symbiota platform. Any additional analyses or derived specimens created by the research community are also linked in the specimen record. NEON has benefited substantially from community development of tools and standards, but the process of data integration has not been without problems. Here, we will discuss challenges NEON has faced in the implementation of the extended specimen as well as solutions.

Mission: Implausible — Revealing rogue marine species in records across biodiversity data platforms

Online biodiversity platforms publish datasets with graphic tools to help with quality control of submitted records, but more could be done to make the data robust for ecological analyses. Attention has focused mostly on automating tools for obvious errors, including misspelled names and synonyms, dates, or coordinates. However, a manual review of species identifications and distributions may uncover improbable records, such as a species reported in an area far from its usual range, or a rare species found in an area that has many more records of a related species. Examples are shown by constructing checklists in the Northwest Atlantic, using information from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS, http://www.marinespecies.org) and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS, https://obis.org). Reviewing rare species records revealed some misidentifications, but in other instances, the rare species was valid while it was the commonly reported species that needed correction. Confirmations were obtained by comparing records from different regions, but also across platforms, including photos from observers on iNaturalist Canada (https://inaturalist.ca), genetic analyses on Barcode of Life Data systems (BOLD, http://www.boldsystems.org), and literature in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org). While this exercise succeeded in validating the marine taxa of a region, it is an obvious candidate for automation in three areas: 1) flagging records of improbable taxa in a region, 2) comparing records with different types of information (e.g., specimen photos, genetic groupings, or literature records), and 3) updating users and providers when records get flagged as unusual or are modified. The first approach could be explored using online graphics tools or R software packages (rOpenSci, https://ropensci.org). The second toolset, comparing records across platforms, is partially realized with some linkages already operating between WoRMS, OBIS, BOLD, BHL, iNaturalist, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, https://www.gbif.org). The third target will be the most difficult to implement, requiring reliable platform cross-linkages and specimen record identifiers to send notifications of changed status of records to both users and the original data source. Ongoing work is discussed on communicating the need to review records across platforms, with the hope that toolsets will be developed to make this task easier.

Dragonflies and damselflies of the Western Cape - OdonataMAP report, August 2018

In the two-year period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018, citizen scientists added seven species to the list of dragonflies and damselflies in the Western Cape, bringing the total to 76 species (Figure 1). The database available for this report contained 11,267 records of dragonflies and damselflies. This includes the specimen record dating back to the start of the 20th century. Of these records 2,433 records (22%) were added between July 2016 and June 2017, and 4,202 (37%) between July 2017 and June 2018. Thus 59% of the entire Western Cape database of records of dragonflies and damselflies was contributed by citizen scientists in two years.