I see this discussion has split into two threads one organising the 
specimens and the other a database of some sort.

The original question if I read it correctly dealt more with organising 
the actual specimens. I think the best way to organise the specimens is 
to do it by family, then genus alphabetically and then species 
alphabetically within each genus. Then depending on how many 
lots/specimens you have of each species/subspecies I would suggest 
organising them geographically by say country then by state if you have 
a lot and then by county or other smaller geopolitical unit if you have 
a very large number of specimens from one country say the US. Another 
thing that can help at a glance is to colour code the labels you 
generate for your collection for example you could colour the labels 
according to the ocean basin they occur in, so a species with an 
Indo-Pacific range (say Mauritius to Fiji), any specimens from the 
Indian Ocean basin might get labels printed on blue paper and those from 
the Pacific Ocean basin say on white paper. So if you know a particular 
species has an Indo-Pacific range you will be able to see at a glance if 
you have specimens from across the whole range or from one area and not 
the other. This system works best if you have your specimens housed in 
such as way, say boxes and glass tubes, where you can easily see both 
the specimens and some or all of the label, like typically seen in 
museum collections.

Now using the database like other people have suggested with additional 
fields such as for county, state, country, ocean and so forth as well as 
family, genus, subgenus, species, subspecies etc will allow you to 
search for all sorts of combinations to your hearts content.

Stephanie

-- 
Dr Stephanie A. Clark

Director
Invertebrate Identification
6535 N Mozart St, Apt 3F
Chicago, IL, 60645-4339 USA
Mobile 1 (205) 310 9942

email [log in to unmask]
http://www.invertebrateidentification.com/

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