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This database was established in 1970 (Martignoni et al. 1973). The database consists only of published host records. Unpublished host records (material stored in virus collections, internal laboratory reports, and personal correspondence) do not appear in the database. Martignoni and his colleagues covered the most significant primary literature in insect virology, as well as most review articles published in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Papers written in Croatian, Czech, Japanese, Polish, and Russian were included if available in translation (mostly English or German), or if they contained a summary in English, French, or German, adequately detailed to derive the information needed.
This is a database of diseases, not of viruses. The disease names (Table 1) are those most commonly used in the English language. For instance, "polyhedrosis" (code 16) indicates that the author of a report did not specify whether the disease was a "cytoplasmic polyhedrosis" (code 5) or a "nuclear polyhedrosis" (code 12) and no cytological or histological evidence was presented in the publication (an omission not uncommon before 1960). In some cases, however, even though the author of a report did not distinguish between the two diseases, the literature analyst was able to make such distinction on the basis of photomicrographs or other evidence available in the report. "Hairless-black syndrome" (code 21) indicates that the author of the report discusses the syndrome as distinct from "bee chronic paralysis" (code 2), even though both paralysis and syndrome are caused by the same virus. "Presumed virosis" (code 17) indicates that the author of the report suspects a virus as the causative agent of the disease, but such a virus has not been isolated and the causal relation has not been proved. "Gattine" (code 8), a type of flacherie, is listed mainly because of the historical significance of the reports that mention it.
Martignoni et al. were forced to lump several records in the ill-defined category "presumed virosis" (code 17, Table 1). They believed that far too many papers were rushed into print before sufficient evidence on the viral nature and pathogenicity of "virus-like" particles was obtained. Sometimes, the viral nature of these particles is only conjecture. Faced with the dilemma of ignoring or listing such records, they decided to include them, hoping that the viral nature of the particles would be confirmed in further studies. In the meantime, the reader should consider each code 17 entry with moderate skepticism.
Each record contains 11 fields of information. The first four fields contain conventional bibliographic information:
The next three fields contain taxonomic information on the insect hosts:
The scientific names are in conformity with those approved by the Entomological Society of America. Recent monographs and specialists were consulted when scientific names and family designations did not appear in the list mentioned.
The following two fields contain:
The listings of diseases is presented in Table 1; the classification of viral diseases is presented in Table 2. Subject categories are in Table 3. Each entry may be related to more than one subject.
The 10th field (MM Card No.) contains a number which provides access to the original file, where additional information may be stored on a card (e.g., name of the collection where an article or a book is preserved, if not generally available). The same Card number appears also on reprints or books stored in the archived collection of Dr. Martignoni at the University of New Mexico. Records are numbered consecutively according to the date on which they were entered. The Card numbers 1 to 260 are reserved for the citations in Hughes (1957), and numbers 261 to 733 for those in Martrignoni and Langston (1960).
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