The Specimen Collection
- The Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU), Walter Reed Army
Institute of Research (WRAIR),
United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC),
and their predecessors, and the Section of Entomology (SOE),
Department of Systematic Biology, National Museum of Natural History
(NMNH), Smithsonian
Institution (SI),
have worked together effectively since 1961. During that time the
NMNH Mosquito Collection has developed into the largest in the
world, comprising over 1.5 million specimens. The WRBU performs
collection management activities — maintenance and protection
of specimens, handling of transactions including loans, and progress
toward improvement of the collection — and provides assistance
to SOE personnel, SI Research Associates, visiting scientists,
and mosquito researchers in locating and examining specimens contained
in the NMNH Mosquito Collection. The WRBU also maintains a molecular
entomology laboratory at the MSC for joint use of WRBU and SOE
personnel. (more... WRAIR-SI Memorandum
of Understanding - PDF)
Current Research Projects
Medically Important Vectors
- Current and upcoming projects include: a mosquito genus key of
the SOUTHCOM AOR; computer-based identification keys to the Anopheles
malaria vectors of the SOUTHCOM AOR, including keys to all Anopheles
adult and larval mosquitoes of Central America, and taxonomic revision
and key to adult Anopheles subgenus Nyssorhynchus of Central
and South America; an illustrated identification guide for the
Anopheles mosquitoes (both vectors and non-vectors) in Africa;
creation of identification tools for the medically important culicine
mosquitoes (non-Anopheles) of Central and South America; creation
of web-based identification keys to Anopheles adult female and
larval mosquitoes belonging to subgenera Kerteszia and Anopheles of
South America; an illustrated identification guide for the medically
important sand flies in Southwest Asia; an internet/web-based illustrated
identification guide for the Phlebotomine sand flies in Central
and South America (SOUTHCOM AOR), with emphasis on medically important
species.
MosquitoMap
- MosquitoMap is
an online, geospatially-referenced clearinghouse for mosquito species
observation data and distribution maps. The primary initial use
of this site will be to allow interested parties, such as researchers
and species collectors, to access a map that displays mosquito
observation data from a variety of databases as points or country
level aggregations, and interrogate these layers to learn more
about the individual observations. Additionally, users will have
access to supplemental layers representing species richness estimates
and predicted species distribution that may be used in identifying
potential new collection locations.
WRBU Mosquito Publications
|
|
 |