INTERESTING INSECTS

Special characters

To search text containing special characters the text must be enclosed in double quotes ("). Special characters include any of the following set:

? [  ] + - ( ) {  }  ^ ~ *  : /  | ! &

Example:

• "Plant & Food"

Full word search using AND

To define an search that finds all the terms, use AND (must be in upper case) between the terms, or simply leave a space between the terms (terms may be words or phrases contained in quotes). A record must contain each of the terms in the search query that are separated by a space or AND to be a match.

Examples:

• Ladybird whitefly
• Ladybird AND whitefly

Full word search using OR

A record must contain only one of these words to be a match. OR must be written in upper case.

Example:

• ladybird OR whitefly

Phrase search

Use double quotes to define a search term that is a phrase. A record must contain the exact phrase to be a match.

Example:

• "cabbage whitefly" (returns records that contains the exact string "cabbage whitefly")

Negative searches

To omit results containing a specific term a - symbol is added in front of that term. A record must contain any other search terms that are included but must not contain terms proceeded by the - symbol.

Example:

• whitefly -Australian  (returns records that contain whitefly but not Australian)

Wild card search

The wild card used in this portal is the * symbol. Wild cards can be placed anywhere within your query term. Without a wild card, a word is treated as a full word search. For example, a search for beet will return only results where the word beet is used, but a search for beet* will return results for beet, beetle, and any other word that starts with beet.

Example:

• mealy* (find records containing words beginning with mealy, such as mealybug, mealybugs)
• *bug (find records containing words that end with bug, such as bug, lacebug, mealybug, shield-bug)
• li*e (find records with words that start with li and end with e, such as life and live)

Field-limited search

To search within a specific field, the search is proceeded by the field name and a colon. Searchable fields are listed at the bottom of this page and must be written with the correct lower and upper cases characters, as below.

Example:

• order:Coleoptera  (find records that contain the word coleoptera in the order field)
• honeydewFeedingSummary:* (find all records that contain information for the Honey dew feeding field)
• honeydewFeedingSummary:*  AND hostPlantList:manuka  (find records that contain information for the Honey dew feeding field and include mānuka in the Host plant list)

Negative field search

The field-limited search can be used prefixed with - to exclude any records with the specified text in a particular field.

Example:

• -honeydewFeedingSummary:* (find all records not containing information in Honey dew feeding)

Combining negative and field searches

It is possible to combine negative and context searches, particularly to omit subsets of records from the search results.

Example:

• honeydewFeedingSummary:* AND -hostPlantList:manuka (find records that contain information on Honey dew feeding but do not list mānuka as a host plant)

Proximity search

A proximity search returns as a match any record where the search terms are within a specified distance of each other. 

Example:

• "underside leaves"~150 (returns record where the words 'underside' and 'leaves' occur within 150 words of each other)

Complex searches

It is possible to combine elements of the search syntax in different ways to create complex searches.

Example:

• honeydewFeedingSummary:* AND (hostPlantList:manuka OR hostPlantList:beech) (find all records with information on Honey dew feeding where either mānuka or beech are mentioned in the host plant list)

Search fields