Tuesday, 16 November 2004
0862

An interactive key to the families of Hymenoptera and other methods of disseminating web-based information

Katja Seltmann, moonirene@hotmail.com and Mike Sharkey, msharkey@ca.uky.edu. University of Kentucky, Department of Entomology, Agricultural Sciences North, Lexington, KY

Linear keys for identification are the standard of insect taxonomy. However, with the use of the world wide web and non-linear key formats, a variety of key architectures are now available for creating pleasing and informative keys for wide-spread use. DELTA (Description Language for Taxonomy), created by the CSIRO Division of Entomology, was used to produce a non-linear key to the families of Hymenoptera. A variety of tools for illustrating morphological characters were implemented to clarify the character states. The goals of this presentation are to illustrate the DELTA package for the creation of interactive keys, and to explore other methods of communicating taxonomic information using the Internet.


Species 1: Hymenoptera
Keywords: interactive keys