Establishing an occurrence dataset for historical bee (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) specimens in the Oregon State Arthropod Collection with the initial contribution of Diadasia Patton, 1879 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

University and other public museums hold myriad entomological specimens. Few of these are digitally inventoried and resources for doing so are extremely limited. We document one approach to addressing this problem: the volunteer-enabled curation and digitization of all Diadasia Patton, 1879 specimens held by the Oregon State Arthropod Collection into a publicly accessible species occurrence dataset. This new dataset, OSAC: Bees of the World, includes historical occurrence data and an inventory of specimens and species. The OSAC currently holds 395 Diadasia specimens, representing 27 identified species and a small number of undetermined specimens. Eighteen species are from the United States, and the remainder are from Mexico and Central and South America. Most specimens are historical and collected prior to 1980. This initial dataset by trained volunteers working under the guidance of expert taxonomists to digitize and identify the bees of OSAC will be periodically updated, unlocking the value of these specimens for researchers globally.