Biological Recording

[Imaginos]

For any budding entomologists out there I thought I’d put together a few notes on biological recording. These notes can be useful for bird and mammal notes but have been tailored for invertebrates and the collection of such. It is important when making collections that as much data as possible is recorded; otherwise you end up with a boxful of dead insects of uncertain provenance that are useless other than as trinkets. A fully recorded collection and field book, however, can be a personal contribution to the scientific record.

There are six pieces of information that should be provided as part of a biological record. These are the pieces of information that should be included with the specimen, if one is taken, usually on card mounted on the same pin (or, with spirit collections, in the same tube).
Location Name: It should be possible to find at least the named parish or village on a 1:25000 OS map.
OS Grid reference: (or equivalent e.g. latitude and longitude). Ideally to pinpoint a 1km or 100m square.
Date of Collection: Day month & year. Time if known.
Name of Collector or Observer.
Taxon Name: This may be a full species name or the name of a higher level taxonomic group e.g. order, family.
Name of Determiner: Don’t expect to be able to identify everything you have found, especially if you do not have the relevant, up-to-date keys. The determiner is the person who identifies the specimen. If a second person (usually an expert) has examined a specimen & agreed with the original identification, this person is named as the confirmer.

Useful additional data, which can be kept in a fully cross-referenced record book, includes:-
Location of Voucher Specimen: Where such is taken the location of the specimen (e.g. personal collection, BMNH collection) should be recorded.
Habitat: This information may be as detailed as the recorder is able to give. Where specimens have been collected from a specific plant the species of plant should be included. Other details could include habitat management if known, site specific details, and suchlike.
Sampling Technique employed.
Details of Physical Environment: Where relevant, for example altitude, aspect, geology etc.
Details of Behaviour and Relationships with Other Species: Observations of predation, prey items, parasites, mating behaviour etc.
Life Cycle Stage.
Sex: This may include caste for social insects.
Key or Other Literature Used to Identify the Specimen.

Much of this data should be noted in the field to avoid losing information through not being able to remember details at a later date. Most workers will take a notebook into the field with them although PDAs may be a useful substitute, some keep field and determination (identification) notes separate and care should be made to adequately cross-reference the two. A days collecting can be prefaced with a general overview of location, date, techniques, weather conditions and the like, making it easier to record specific details of each specimen (remember to leave room for extra details, especially if the specimen is initially unidentified). Any notes should also include details of which collecting tube (or other receptacle) the specimen is in.
Remember you can never have too much information, new discoveries are made every year from old personal collections that have passed into the hands of museums or other research bodies and the more you record the more chance there is of your collection being of some use.

[Imaginos]

For those that are interested the Biological Records Centre run many recording schemes for British insects & plants which make use of records taken in the manner described above.

http://www.brc.ac.uk/recording_schemes.asp

[Paul mabbott]

Excellent recommendation. Recording invertebrates may seem an overwhelming task to those used to a few species of birds or plants that can't escape but *every* record is potentially useful so don't be worried if, at first, you are only recording "easy" or common species. In fact, 'common' species are often not recorded by experts so we can never be sure whether they are really common (think house sparrows!).
Also, identifying 'easy' species gives you the practice in handling them, using keys and understanding their anatomy .. and, if you contribute to a recording scheme, you will usually find someone who will help you out by looking at pictures, specimens &c..

[Paul mabbott]

Not everyone will know how to give grid references - the Ordnance Survey gives instructions at http:/www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/mapshop/pdf/map_reading_made_easy.pdf
You can give maps to any degree of accuracy but the preferred one is to 100m - a six figure reference such as TQ123123 (this is actually an eight-figure one but the letters are used to replace the next set of figures up!).
If you have a GIS you can give ten-digit references (i.e. to 1m) *but* do make sure that your device is correctly calibrated. Most are initially set to be "off" so that you don't use them for directing WMD!
If you don't have a map and are in an urban area then you can get a good enough grid reference from the post code - Multimap is the easiest of many programmes to use - http://www.multimap.com/

Originally Posted by Imaginos

OS Grid reference: (or equivalent e.g. latitude and longitude). Ideally to pinpoint a 1km or 100m square.

[Paul mabbott]

That should, of course, have been:at http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswe..._made_easy.pdf

[Paul mabbott]

As I've said in other threads, ladybirds are a good starting point for recording and there are several active surveys:
the national one http://www.ladybird-survey.org/
London and Essex http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/ladybird_survey.htm
Leicestershire http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/commun...ird_survey.htm
North of England http://www.ladybird-survey.pwp.bluey...o.uk/NoELS.htm
and probably others!

Originally Posted by Imaginos

For those that are interested the Biological Records Centre run many recording schemes for British insects & plants which make use of records taken in the manner described above.

http://www.brc.ac.uk/recording_schemes.asp

[Paul mabbott]

A requirement of systematic biological recording is that you should have people who can identify animals, plants and fungi. Unfortunately the number of university courses teaching this has been declining for several years, especially in entomology. Another loss is threatened at Birmingham:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Biolo...761523?sk=info
This is, of course, simple cost-cutting but the University argues that it must concentrate its funds on research - so you will have researchers working without being able to recognise the organisms they find in field work?

[Matt Smith]

Just a couple of notes regarding the basic "who - what - where - when" details of biological recording when passing records on.

Please, when dealing with OS Grid References, write them as a single complete reference - eg SU123456. Please do not split them up in any way, particularly on spreadsheets where I sometimes get the grid spaced over 3 different cells as SU 123 456. I know I, and I am sure a lot of other recorders, have spent a long time putting grid refs back together again so that they can be used by mapping software like DMAP.

Dates. Spreadsheets like Excel can do terrible things to dates, particularly when loading data from one machine into another. Depending on how each PC is set up, in Numeric format Excel can display the same date as 2/4/11 or 4/2/11. This is fine until you import some data formated in both ways, then dates are all over the place and you suddenly find your database is telling you that a lot of stuff is out and about in February !!!

Date formats are best set to "2-March-2011" or similar so that it is possible to look back at the original data and see what is correct. Even better, output you dates in Text format, that way Excel can't mangle them.