The GrylTett database stores information on crickets and katydids accumulated by Thomas J. Walker, University of Florida, from 1955 to date.

Genesis

In 1988, a card catalog of tapes in the Walker Tape Library was converted to a table in a Paradox digital database. In May 1998, that table was made part of an Access 97 relational database (GrylTett.mdb) and tables for other types of data were established. In January 2003, the database was converted to Access 2000 and its structure simplified. The database now includes an index to field notes (1420 records) and more than 35,000 records (tblMain and tblRecordedSongs) used to establish the geographical distribution and seasonal distribution of each species.

Description

The Word document GTdbexp5.doc lists the eight tables of the database and the fields within each. The Main Menu of the database is displayed by frmSwitchboard.

Main Menu item "Get Data for SAS Map" is further explained in the Word document "Creating county distribution maps from records in GrylTett.mdb." The final steps in making a map require this SAS program: SASmaps.sas.

Computer-generated maps have both advantages and disadvantages over manually generated "dot maps."

Database download

You may download GrylTett.mdb (ca. 22 MB), an Access 2000 database, in zipped compressed format (ca. 4 MB).

Download the folder GTdb.zip.

To unzip the compressed database in Windows XP, open GTdb.zip and drag GrylTett.mdb from the compressed folder to a new location.

Acknowledgments

Xi Sun set up the Access 97 database and Kelly Sweeney (1999-2000) and Cynthia Williams (2001) entered most of the records that are now in it. Terry L. Shaffer developed the SAS mapping program and helped Xi Sun implement it. Kelly Sweeney refined features of the database and the mapping program. Paula Dufort (2002-2003) assisted in converting the database from Access 97 to Access 2000. Carrie Newsom (2003-2004) improved the user interface and the capabilities of the Access 2000 database in many ways.