Beetle Morphology
is available through the following portals:
I've been working with a team of researchers to create the first ever ontology for beetle anatomy.
In order to achieve that, we first created a general ontology for insects: Ontology for the Anatomy of the Insect SkeletoMuscular system (AISM) focused on the cuticular system, which is what is usually observed and described in insect biodiversity research.
The AISM is available on GitHub: https://github.com/insect-morphology/aism, open for collaborative editing and refinement. It was built using the Ontology Development Kit (ODK, https://github.com/INCATools/ontology-development-kit) and edited using Protégé version 5.5.0 (https://protege.stanford.edu/).
The AISM contains generalized terms and definitions for insect anatomical structures of the exoskeleton and is approved by the OBO Foundry (http://www.obofoundry.org/ontology/aism.html). Its content can be searched via Ontobee, OLS, and BioPortal.
We posted a preprint about our work with the AISM:
Girón, J. C., S. Tarasov, L. A. González Montaña, N. Matentzoglu, A. D. Smith, M. Koch, B. E. Boudinot, P. Bouchard, R. Burks, L. Vogt, M. Yoder, D. Osumi-Sutherland, F. Friedrich, R. Beutel, I. Mikó. Formalizing insect morphological data: a model-based, extensible insect anatomy ontology and its potential applications in biodiversity research and informatics. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202201.0254.v1
The Coleoptera Anatomy Ontology (COLAO) has been created from a simplified version of the AISM, also using the ODK, and is available via GitHub (https://github.com/insect-morphology/colao), open for collaborative editing. There is a manual on how to edit AISM-based ontologies and how to create your own: https://github.com/insect-morphology/Manual.
The COLAO is in its early stages of development and as of November 2021 it contains AISM terms and beetle specific terms and definitions from Lawrence & Ślipiński (2013, Adult morphology. In: Australian beetles volume 1: morphology, classification and keys). The current version (v2021-12-14) can be viewed via BioPortal at https://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/COLAO.
In December 16 2021 the COLAO was approved by the OBO Foundry. It is now available on the OBO Foundry website and through the Ontology Lookup Service.
I gave a talk about my postdoctoral work on the Coleoptera Anatomy Ontology at the annual meeting of The Coleopterists Society in December 2020. A recording is available here: https://youtu.be/hcWEJwP5Z_k
I was the keynote speaker at the Virtual Annual Meeting and Symposium of The Coleopterists Society in 2021.
A recording of the presentation is available at https://youtu.be/Nwpk3pBHn1U, with closed captions and subtitles in Spanish.
I was invited to be a part of the insect anatomy ontology and interfaces workshop/discussion in April 2018. This meeting was held as a contribution to develop the platform TaxonWorks, a workbench for biodiversity informatics. We discussed some concepts, relationships and entities, at the same time thinking of the infrastructure, interactions and user interfaces. TaxonWorks is coordinated by Dr. Matt Yoder at the University of Illinois (http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/directory/show/mjyoder).
2. Labrum
3. Maxilla
4. Mandible
6. Prosternal process
7. Abdominal tergites8. Abdominal tergites
10. Abdominal tergite
11. Scutellum
12. Metendosternite
14. Abdominal tergite
Some of my finds revising the morphology of the Hydrophiloidea are recorded in my blog (chronologically):
I was the invited speaker for the Seminar Series of the Department of Entomology at Purdue University on September 12, 2020. I talked about the several ways in which I have used morphological traits in my research, and in my current role as the manager of The Coleoptera Anatomy Ontology Project.
A recording of the talk is avilable here: https://youtu.be/SFMywbGIVIE