Digitization PEN: Adding a world-class flea collection to the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker network

Parasitic insects have a global impact on human health, livestock production, and wildlife conservation. Building robust datasets of parasites’ host preferences, seasonal activity, and geographic range can help scientists and public health professionals understand and predict patterns of disease transmission; however, much of the data needed for these assessments is accessible only through museum collections.

The primary goal of this project is to extract this data from a world-class collection of fleas and associated parasites at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH). As part of the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Thematic Collections Network (TPT TCN), high-quality specimen images and host/locality data will be captured, digitized, and shared via public data portals.

This will allow entomologists, epidemiologists, and other researchers to make essential connections between disease vectors and their host species. In turn, understanding these connections will support future assessments of economic and health risks from insect-vectored disease.

The Robert Traub flea collection at CMNH is one of the largest and most meticulously curated collections of mammal parasites in the world, with 74,897 specimens mounted under glass on 60,596 glass slides with 4,615 associated genitalic dissections. This project will use automated slide scanning technology developed for pathology laboratory use to capture whole-slide and specimen images efficiently.

These images will then be linked with digitized host and locality data from both slide labels and Traub’s fieldwork logs. This project will more than quintuple the Siphonaptera specimen records for the Terrestrial Parasite Tracker TCN and complete its representation of flea families. This will represent a valuable dataset and image resource not just for TPT TCN and epidemiology research, but for systematic research on Siphonaptera in general.

Disseminating this data through the online data portals, including iDigBio.org, Symbiota Collection of Arthropods Network (SCAN), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Broad digital access will enable researchers and diagnosticians worldwide to access an enormous database of host-parasite relationships as well as to compare their specimens to high-quality specimen images with reliable species-level identifications.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.