I’m growing and extending interaction/association data in my research database on the species of the superorder Neuropterida (Insecta: orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera, and Raphidioptera) of the world. The data is primarily drawn from the published literature; some also from specimen labels. I’m interested in standardizing the terminology that I use to describe interactions and associations. I’m interested in taxon to taxon interactions (e.g., species X eats species Y; species X is phoretic on species Y), taxon to inanimate object interactions/associations (e.g., species X oviposits on substrate Y [say, rocks]), and taxon to concept associations (e.g., species X exhibits behavior Y). Can anyone recommend any good lists of standardized terms (with definitions) for this sort of thing? Are there any good, well developed, ontologies for general taxon-taxon and/or taxon-inanimate interactions? I have a list of 500+ “association kinds” (without well-standardized definitions) that I have scraped together over the years. I’d like to plug these into (or convert them into) something more standardized if something more standard exists. Thanks for any suggestions on where I might go next on this.

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John D. Oswald

Professor of Entomology

Curator, Texas A&M University Insect Collection

Department of Entomology

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX  77843-2475

E-mail: j-oswald@tamu.edu

Phone: 1-979-862-3507

Lacewing Digital Library: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/

Bibliography of the Neuropterida: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/Biblio/Main

Neuropterida Species of the World: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/SpeciesCatalog/Main