A Students Guide to Insect Identification Software on the Web

Maggie Tai Tucker Zoology 445 (honors project) Spring 2003

Why look at web software?

Several potential advantages: Databases searchable in many different ways (by characters, by descriptions, by family, etc.) Can offer couplet choices one at a time, less confusing for beginners. Can link to more detailed information, photos, illustrations. Essentially no space limitations.

Potential shortcomings

If students can find info on the web, they may not learn to use a written key, which remains the standard. Free public keys tend to specialize in one topic or in one area, based on who sponsored the project. May be very shallow, e.g. only to order. Creating a key is a huge undertaking both building the database and making the links to guide users through it.

Criteria used in this review

# of taxa (as a point of comparison, the Level of expertise needed to use Quality of photos or illustrations Availability/accessibility Cost

written key used in our class Bland 1978 includes 3200+ taxa)

Programs reviewed

Bug-Net (UK) simple, accurate IDs to order City Bug (Berkeley) most suitable for children COMTESA (Oregon State Univ.) the most detailed of the online keys, but limited coverage DAISY (UK/Costa Rica/US) an automated ID project for conservation use, included here only to let students know what a key might look like far in the future WoodyBug 2.0 (Univ. of Florida) not a key, but photos, text, and links on some common families; strong on biology and insect life history

Bug-Net: Summary

Web site created by a senior at Univ. of Hertfordshire Focus is on UK spp. Series of couplet choices directs users to correct order Web links to more info on orders, suborders.
http://www.bug-net.co.uk/index.html

Bug-Net: Best couplet interface

Bug-Net Features
CATEGORY # of taxa Level of user expertise Quality of photos, illos. Availability/ accessibility Cost Interface design FEATURES 19 orders Low Excellent Medium Free Excellent Photos, slides, drawings Works only with Netscape NOTES
Several examples per order; focus is on UK insects

City Bug: Description

Joint project of Oakland Schools and UC Berkeley Aim: To educate kids K-12 and the public One of its search tools lets you check off known features of the insect such as habitat and body type Users can e-mail queries to UC http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/citybugs/main.htm entomologists

City Bug Features

CATEGORY # of taxa FEATURES 36 orders NOTES Common names used; focus is on SF Bay taxa

Level of user expertise Quality of photos/drawings Availability

Low _ _ None available yet Most areas not yet completed

Cost
Interface design

Free
Good Appropriate for children

COMTESA: Description

Computer Taxonomy and Ecology of Soil Animals Covers mainly soil animals found in Pacific NW: Coleoptera, Isopoda, Acari, Collembola, a few Hymenoptera Includes some dichotomous, some synoptic keys Original Mac Hypercard version was designed so researchers could tailor ID process to local species. (BSA has a copy of this.) Moved onto the Web in 2002.
http://www.ent.orst.edu/comtesa/

COMTESA: Primitive but clear illustrations

COMTESA: Most detailed list of characters

Comtessa Features
CATEGORY # of taxa Level of user expertise Quality of photos/illos. Availability Cost Interface design FEATURES ~ 200 High Poor Good Free Clunky, but it works NOTES Can be used to ID to species No explanations of characters

DAISY Description

Project to develop automated insect ID software (image from a special camera is analyzed) Aim: For non-specialists to be able to ID insect species as a means of assessing status of a local ecosystem Intended to help implement Convention on Biological diversity Target group is Ophioninae (a suborder of Ichneumonidae) Joint effort by researchers in UK-Costa Rica-US

http://chasseur.usc.edu/pups/projects/daisy.html

DAISY Features
CATEGORY # of taxa Level of user expertise Quality of photos/drawing s Availability FEATURES 300+ Low _ It takes a photo and compares to reference Commercial unit in development Need camera unit & software Designed for field conditions NOTES Still in pilot stage

Cost

Likely to be high

Interface design Likely to be simple

Univ. of Florida: Summary

Not a true key, it claims to be a knowledgebase Central directory photos function as a simplified key Available both as CD-ROM and on a department web site (web site hard to find!) Aim: to educate both the general public and students of pest management Other databases in the series: Bees & Wasps, Mole Crickets, and a http://woodypest.ifas.ufl.edu/insect.htm Butterfly Tutorial.

Univ. of Fla. Features

CATEGORY # of taxa Level of user expertise Quality of photos/illos. Availability FEATURES ~ 75 Low Excellent Medium NOTES Focus is on SE spp. e.g. cotton aphid Many terms defined; links to glossary Photos of host plants, biocontrol spp., too Site not findable by search engine

Cost
Interface design

CD: $10 Web site: free

CD: poor Web site: good Must click on Insect.htm file to begin using CD; its not obvious

A word on specialty web sites

As useful and in some cases more useful than these keys are the many web sites devoted to a particular family or subfamily of insect. For example, if trying to key out a Coccinellid beetle with 7 spots, try typing 7 spot lady beetle into a search engine. Nearly 50 links appear, most providing the scientific species name and some providing photos or illustrations

Example of a good specialty site

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~samarsha/lady-beetles.htm

Conclusions

No software key is currently as thorough as a written general key, or as detailed as a written specialty key on a particular order or suborder. If one comes out that has a comparable level of detail, it will most likely be from the publisher of a written key. COMTESA is the most directly relevant to students at the Univ. of Washington, because of its level of detail, clear illustrations, and focus on species found in the Pacific NW The Univ. of Florida web sites and CDs are a good general teaching resource.