A Gross Anatomy Ontology for Hymenoptera

Abstract

Hymenoptera is an extraordinarily diverse lineage, both in terms of species numbers and morphotypes, that includes sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants. These organisms serve critical roles as herbivores, predators, parasitoids, and pollinators, with several species functioning as models for agricultural, behavioral, and genomic research. The collective anatomical knowledge of these insects, however, has been described or referred to by labels derived from numerous, partially overlapping lexicons. The resulting corpus of information—millions of statements about hymenopteran phenotypes—remains inaccessible due to language discrepancies. The Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO) was developed to surmount this challenge and to aid future communication related to hymenopteran anatomy. The HAO was built using newly developed interfaces within mx, a Web-based, open source software package, that enables collaborators to simultaneously contribute to an ontology. Over twenty people contributed to the development of this ontology by adding terms, genus differentia, references, images, relationships, and annotations. The database interface returns an Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) formatted version of the ontology and includes mechanisms for extracting candidate data and for publishing a searchable ontology to the Web. The application tools are subject-agnostic and may be used by others initiating and developing ontologies. The present core HAO data constitute 2,111 concepts, 6,977 terms (labels for concepts), 3,152 relations, 4,361 sensus (links between terms, concepts, and references) and over 6,000 text and graphical annotations. The HAO is rooted with the Common Anatomy Reference Ontology (CARO), in order to facilitate interoperability with and future alignment to other anatomy ontologies, and is available through the OBO Foundry ontology repository and BioPortal. The HAO provides a foundation through which connections between genomic, evolutionary developmental biology, phylogenetic, taxonomic, and morphological research can be actualized. Inherent mechanisms for feedback and content delivery demonstrate the effectiveness of remote, collaborative ontology development and facilitate future refinement of the HAO.

Review of the genus Aphaereta Förster, 1863 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae) from the Afrotropical region, with description of three new species

“…For the terminology of the morphological features and sculpture, measurements and wing venation nomenclature see Sharkey and Wharton (1997) and HAO (Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology Portal: http://portal.hymao.org/) (Yoder et al 2010). For measurements of the length and width of mandibles and abbreviations for ocellar proportions see Peris-Felipo et al (2013).…”

Dinotrema cavernicola sp. n. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae), a new species of the genus Dinotrema Foerster from caves of Spain

“…For terminology of morphological features and sculpture, measurements and wing venation nomenclature, see Sharkey and Wharton (1997) and HAO (Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology Portal: http://portal.hymao.org/) (Yoder et al 2010). To follow the identification keys by Peris-Felipo et al (2014), the following differences in terminology should be kept in mind (terms in Peris-Felipo et al (2014) Type specimens are deposited in the Entomological Collection at the University of Valencia (Valencia, Spain; ENV), in the Grupo de Espeleología de Villacarillo (Jaén, Spain; GEV), and in the Zoological Institute RAS (St Petersburg, Russia; ZISP).…”

The maxillo-labial complex of Sparasion (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea)

“…Anatomical concepts used here are defined and aligned with those of Alam 1951, Beutel and Vilhelmsen 2007, Bugnion 1924, Cockerell 1924, Crampton 1923, Crosskey 1951, Dhillon 1966Duncan 1939, Eickwort 1969, Forel 1874, Gotwald 1969, Krenn et al 2005, Liu 1925Matsuda 1965, Matsuda 1957, McGinley 1980, Michener 1944, Michener 1984, Plant and Paulus 1987, Prentice 1998, Ross 1937, Ritchie and Peters 1981, Ronquist and Nordlander 1989, Snodgrass 1942, Ulrich 1924, Vilhelmsen 1996, Winston 1979 in the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO, Yoder et al 2010). Anatomical terms in the Results section are linked to the HAO via the URI table (Appendix 2; see Seltmann et al 2012 for more information about this approach).…”