I’ve been wanting to share SDSU & Hedin lab specimen data online for quite some time.  For at least 10 years. Working in a small museum, without IT support, has hampered these efforts. I’ve finally taken the initiative to join SCAN, the Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network.  The IT folks at SCAN have been wonderfully supportive in providing a place for the SDSU Terrestrial Arthropods collection data. Our general plan is to start with harvestmen, then include spiders, then the TAC insects.  In addition to “clean”, high-quality georeferenced specimen data, we’ll also be including nice digital images.  I’m thankful to the graduate students and undergrads who are helping me in this effort.

If you’re interested, go to the SCAN portal (link above), “Search Collections” (e.g., by species name, higher taxon, common name, etc), then be amazed with the excellent maps, data, and images available.  Powerful stuff with unlimited potential.