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Title: SYSTEMATIC INFORMATION DATABASE OF FRUIT FLIES

Author
item Norrbom, Allen
item Carroll, Lynn
item Thompson, F
item WHITE, IAN
item FREIDBERG, AMNON

Submitted to: Myia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/31/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Fruit flies are major pests of U.S. crops causing millions of dollars in losses each year. Despite their importance, we still know very little about fruit fly taxonomy and they can be very difficult to identify. Despite the increasing demand for biosystematic information critical to agriculture and the study of biotic diversity, taxonomic resources are shrinking. To avoid an information crisis, new technologies must be utilized to relieve the demands on systematists and increase their productivity. The Fruit Fly Biosystematic Information Database is a prototype system utilizing computer technologies. The component of which are: A database with basic nomenclatural and distributional information for the species of Tephritidae of the world; and an expert system for the identification of the most important economic species. The database contains 980 generic names (524 valid) and 5,817 specific names (4,203 valid). The expert system covers 195 species and includes 227 characters and more than 377 images. This prototype demonstrates that it is possible to increase and more effectively synthesize and disseminate biosystematic information to users such as port identifiers, regulatory decision makers, and other scientists.

Technical Abstract: Fruit flies are major pests of U.S. crops causing millions of dollars in losses each year. Despite their importance, we still know very little about fruit fly taxonomy and they can be very difficult to identify. Despite the increasing demand for biosystematic information critical to agriculture and the study of biotic diversity, taxonomic resources are shrinking. To avoid an information crisis, new technologies must be utilized to relieve the demands on systematists and increase their productivity. The Fruit Fly Biosystematic Information Database is a prototype system utilizing computer technologies. The component of which are: A database with basic nomenclatural and distributional information for the species of Tephritidae of the world; and an expert system for the identification of the most important economic species. The database contains 980 generic names (524 valid) and 5,817 specific names (4,203 valid). The expert system covers 195 species and includes 227 characters and more than 377 images. This prototype demonstrates that it is possible to increase and more effectively synthesize and disseminate biosystematic information to users such as port identifiers, regulatory decision makers, and other scientists.