[Taxacom] Finding Identification Keys

[John Oswald]

A new resource has recently been posted to the Lacewing Digital Library web portal. The "World Neuropterida Metakey" (http://lacewing.tamu.edu/Metakey/Main) is an interactive, searchable, index to several thousand identification keys that have been published worldwide for insects in the orders Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera, and Glosselytrodea. While the taxon focus of the new resource may not find too wide of an audience in the Taxacom readership, I would be interested to hear from others if there are any similar resources available for other groups (I don't know of any at this point), and also to receive comments on the site-particularly with respect to the variety and functionality of the search and key list generating capabilities-with an eye toward identifying areas where additions and/or improvements could be made in the future. More information about the capabilities of the site can be found in the Abstract and Introduction at the link above.



In addition to helping find keys, the Terminal Taxa tables provided for each key may be of some interest. These tables update the nomenclature/taxonomy used in each key to the modern nomenclature/taxonomy of the world Neuropterida as reflected in the Neuropterida Species of the World catalogue. These tables can be used to manually annotate and update copies of any of the included Neuropterida keys to reflect the current nomenclature/taxonomy of the group.



Thanks for taking a look.



John

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John D. Oswald
Professor of Entomology
Curator, Texas A&M University Insect Collection
Department of Entomology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-2475

E-mail: j-oswald at tamu.edu<mailto:j-oswald at tamu.edu>
Phone: 1-979-862-3507

Lacewing Digital Library: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/
Bibliography of the Neuropterida: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/Biblio/Main
Neuropterida Species of the World: http://lacewing.tamu.edu/SpeciesCatalog/Main