Fill CoL gap: suborder **Symphyta** (Hymenoptera)

[yroskov]

For consideration by the Taxonomy Group (@dhobern & @olafbanki), 2023-11-02:

Dataset title
ECatSym: Electronic World Catalog of Symphyta (Insecta, Hymenoptera)

Dataset contact & access
"Old version" of the Catalogue (2018) is available at https://www.sdei.de/ecatsym.
There is also up-to-date master database available off-line.

We had a conversation with Marko Prous at Taxon Works Together meeting in Oct 2023: the Catalogue might be interested migrating in TaxonWorks and contribute to the CoL. Further negotiations needed.

Taxonomic group & CoL sector
It's a gap in the CoL:
kingdom: Animalia > phylum: Arthropoda > class: Insecta > order: Hymenoptera > suborder Symphyta

Dataset description
Global catalogue of 2018 contains 8,855 species of Sawflies, that belong to 817 genera.

entity	stats
Genera	817
Species	8855
Species with subspecies	113
Subspecies	248
Palaearctic species	4396
Nearctic species	1245
Oriental species	2235
Neotropic species	998
Afrotropic species	386
Australasian species	255
Fossil species	444
Distribution data	92797
Combinations of names	34086
Unavailable names	43
References	17812
Links names–references	130630
Vernacular names	1948
Images	19356

[yroskov]

@dhobern, as soon as TG give a green light, I will send invitation to the custodian of the checklist to join the CoL, and @gdower may help with data conversion in CoLDB via (probably) TaxonWorks.

[mdoering]

If there is use, the entymology institute SDEI hosting this dataset (and probably more) is located very close to me. Happy to chat with them in person if useful.

[yroskov]

Happy to chat with them in person if useful.

Yes, it would be helpful and very much appreciated.

[mdoering]

The Symphyta from SDEI are still very actively being maintained by 4 main editors currently. It is a rather rich dataset with nomenclature, systematics, specimens, range distributions, host plants, some parasite relations and images. All backed by references. The system is built on an old Paradox database though which might require a migration at some point. We are looking into end June to try to get some first test ColDP data out and into ChecklistBank.

To openly publish the dataset an official sharing agreement is required from their institute. @olafbanki is there a chance to get the new agreement ready any time soon? Or do we need to look into reusing older agreements?