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Importance of the “What,” “When,” and “Where” of Mosquito
Collection Events
Author(s): Desmond H. Foley, Richard C. Wilkerson, and Leopoldo M. Rueda
Source: Journal of Medical Entomology, 46(4):717-722. 2009.
Published By: Entomological Society of America
DOI: 10.1603/033.046.0401
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1603/033.046.0401
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FORUM
Importance of the “What,” “When,” and “Where” of Mosquito
Collection Events
DESMOND H. FOLEY,1 RICHARD C. WILKERSON, AND LEOPOLDO M. RUEDA
Division of Entomology, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, 503 Robert Grant Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910
J. Med. Entomol. 46(4): 717Ð722 (2009)
ABSTRACT There is increasing need to apply established standards for recording data on mosquito
collection events, because of the diversity of potential data providers, and the growth and interop-
erability of online databases designed to host these collection records. In particular, adequate
taxonomic and georeference data are needed for geodatabases such as Mosquitomap (http://www.
mosquitomap.org/) that map and compare these collection points with other spatial information in
a geographical information system (GIS) setting. Accurately georeferenced collection data are crucial
for understanding mosquito biogeography, ecology, and the impact of environmental changes, as well
as for species distribution modeling, planning mosquito surveys, and for determining disease risk. We
sampled representative published reports of new mosquito species records from 1980 in North
America to the present to ascertain the quality of georeference information. Our results show that
authors have increased the frequency of reporting georeferences but that they vary in the precision
of the georeference, and some information, such as the source, date, and datum of the georeference,
are usually not given. We discuss recently established standards for recording collection events, some
relevant online resources available to researchers to assist them in their georeferencing, and the data
input schema developed for the Mosquitomap database. We propose that the mosquito research
community adopt data standards for recording and reporting the results of mosquito collection events
to increase the value of these data. In particular, we recommend authors lodge voucher specimens and
use a GPS set to the WGS84 datum.
KEY WORDS distribution, Mosquitomap, georeferencing, GIS, database
Collection locationdata are anunderused resource for
understanding mosquito biogeography, ecology, and
the impact of environmental changes, as well as for
species distribution modeling, planning mosquito sur-
veys, and for determiningdisease risk.Accurately geo-
referenced mosquito collection data can be matched
to remote sensing data of an appropriate resolution to
answer many questions about the environmental de-
terminants of mosquito distribution.
At aminimum, amosquito collectionevent typically
has information about what was collected, when the
collection was made, and where the collection took
place.Thequality of this informationvaries andcanbe
thought of as laying along a taxonomy, time, and space
continuum. Low-quality information on all three di-
mensions would place the collection record in one
corner of the graph, whereas high-quality information
would place it in the opposite corner. Generally, re-
cording when a collection was made is less problem-
atic than recording the “what” and “where” informa-
tion. Improvements in our understanding of mosquito
species inventory, and the availability of identiÞcation
keys, descriptions, and molecular tools suggest that the
potential quality of mosquito identiÞcations has im-
proved.Online resources such as theSystematicCatalog
of the Culicidae (http://www.mosquitocatalog.org/)
provide mosquito workers with up-to-date taxonomic
information and online interactive identiÞcation keys.
However, a survey of 80 recent ecological papers (Bor-
tolus 2008) found that a majority did not have any tax-
onomic information to support species identiÞcations,
and only 2.5% reported that a voucher was kept. In this
paper,we investigate thequalityof the identiÞcationand
locationdataofÞeldcollectedmosquitospeciesreported
in mosquito publications.
There is an increasing need to apply established
standards for recording data on mosquito collection
events, because of the diversity of potential data pro-
viders and the growth and interoperability of online
databases designed to host these collection records. In
particular, adequate taxonomic and georeference data
are needed for geodatabases such as the Global Biodi-
versity Information Facility (GBIF; http://www.gbif.
This research was performed under a Memorandum of Under-
standingbetween theWalterReedArmyInstituteofResearchand the
Smithsonian Institution, with institutional support provided by both
organizations. Thepublishedmaterial reßects the viewsof the authors
and should not be construed to represent those of the Department of
the Army or the Department of Defense.
1 Corresponding author, e-mail: foleydes@si.edu.
0022-2585/09/0717Ð0722$04.00/0  2009 Entomological Society of America