Documenting Your Collections
Info-Muse Network Documentation Guide

Les guides électroniques de la SMQ

Associated Species (Specimen/Description)

Field to be used with an authority listField used for natural science collectionsSociété des musées québécois Info-Muse database field

Definition:

  • This field contains the name of secondary species present in the specimen.

Observations:

  1. For biological sciences: You may enter the binomial names (genus and species) of other specimens collected at the same time as the specimen that is the subject of the record.
    Example

      Disciplinebotany
     Genus Galium
      Species mollugo
    Associated SpeciesAcer negundo
  2. For Earth sciences: This field is particularly useful for documenting specimens that contain one or more secondary minerals.
    Example

      Discipline mineralogy
      Speciesquartz
    Associated Species pectolite; stilbite
  3. For better search results in your database, avoid a large variety of terms; draw up an authority list and add keywords as necessary.

Entry rules:

  1. Enter the full name of the associated species; do not use abbreviations.
  2. If there is more than one associated species, enter the different names in decreasing order of importance, and separate each with a comma followed by a space.
    Example

      Disciplinepetrology
     Rock Name steatite
    Associated Species pyrite; galena
  3. For biological sciences: Enter the scientific names of the genus and the species of associated specimens. In accordance with the International Code of Nomenclature, the first letter of the taxon of the genus is upper case while that of the species is lower case.
    Example

      Disciplinebotany
     GenusLuzula
      Speciesparviflora
    Associated Species Alnus rubra
  4. If you are unsure whether your information is correct, include a space and a question mark after the name.

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