The Canterbury Museum mayfly collection data resource

Abstract

A nationally significant collection of mayflies that has been amassed and curated at Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand is described. A project to formally catalogue the backlog of this collection was completed in 2018. This collection has been primarily worked on, added to, and curated by Terry Hitchings since the early 1990s, with his son Tim Hitchings assisting this work since the late 2000s. This paper outlines this process involved in cataloguing the collection and preparing the data for publication to online biorepositories. The dataset was published to the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in late 2021. This dataset contains just under 49,000 published specimen records with high quality field collection information. It represents nearly all currently described mayfly species in New Zealand. Areas of collecting focus include most of the South Island of New Zealand, with collecting gaps in South Westland and Marlborough. There are large collecting gaps throughout the North Island of New Zealand. An overview of the trends shown in the dataset is provided. Future work is identified and recommended to enhance and improve this dataset to highlight and promote freshwater ecosystems in New Zealand.