A hymenopterists’ guide to the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology: utility, clarification, and future directions

Abstract

Hymenoptera exhibit an incredible diversity of phenotypes, the result of ~240 million years of evolution and the primary subject of more than 250 years of research. Here we describe the history, development, and utility of the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO) and its associated applications. These resources are designed to facilitate accessible and extensible research on hymenopteran phenotypes. Outreach with the hymenopterist community is of utmost importance to the HAO project, and this paper is a direct response to questions that arose from project workshops. In a concerted attempt to surmount barriers of understanding, especially regarding the format, utility, and development of the HAO, we discuss the roles of homology, "preferred terms", and "structural equivalency". We also outline the use of Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs) and posit that they are a key element necessary for increasing the objectivity and repeatability of science that references hymenopteran anatomy. Pragmatically, we detail a mechanism (the "URI table") by which authors can use URIs to link their published text to the HAO, and we describe an associated tool (the "Analyzer") to derive these tables. These tools, and others, are available through the HAO Portal website (http://portal.hymao.org). We conclude by discussing the future of the HAO with respect to digital publication, cross-taxon ontology alignment, the advent of semantic phenotypes, and community-based curation.

Revision of the Polynema dikobraz species-group with description of a remarkable new species from South Africa (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Mymaridae)

“…Morphological terminology follows Heraty et al (2013), Triapitsyn (2017) and the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (HAO: http://portal.hymao.org) (Seltmann et al 2012). Measurements are given in micrometers.…”

The maxillo-labial complex of Sparasion (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea)

“…Anatomical terms in the Results section are linked to the HAO via the URI table (Appendix 2; see Seltmann et al 2012 for more information about this approach).…”

Evolutionary phenomics and the emerging enlightenment of arthropod systematics

“…A simple solution is to append one's publication with a glossary of terms, explicitly defined using genus differentia (Smith 2005). Some insect systematists, Talamas et al (2011) and Mikó et al (2012) for example, have started doing this in the form of a table that also includes links (Uniform Resource Identifiers or URIs) to anatomical concepts in the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology (Yoder et al 2010) and, in some cases, to phenotypic qualities in the Phenotype Quality Ontology (PATO; Mungall et al 2010) (see Seltmann et al 2012 for a description of the process).…”

“…Homology hypotheses are often built around the overall similarity of the 'topography' of two characters (here the shape and biospatial relationship of the structure with other anatomical entities; see discussion in Seltmann et al 2012). Although a sclerite can be described based on its relationships to other sclerites, its relationship with muscles is often crucial for generating well founded homology hypotheses.…”