The centerpiece of Tetrasphaeropyx of the world is the taxonomic identification tool: a Lucid 3.4 interactive identification key (Centre for Biological Information Technology 2007). It is fully illustrated, with associated images.
The centerpiece of Tetrasphaeropyx of the world is the taxonomic identification tool: a Lucid 3.4 interactive identification key (Centre for Biological Information Technology 2007). It is fully illustrated, with associated images.
Each character has attached to it a labeled image that orients the user to where the character is on the insect body, and useful-to-know aspects of the character. Any character chosen for taxonomic study of a group of organisms is chosen because it varies across the group in some way, and thus is useful for identification purposes. The various conditions of a character are called 'character states,' or simply 'states.' For example, a character that occurs on the vertex of the head is the relative ocellar size, or ratio of the diameter of the lateral ocellus to the length of the ocellar-ocular distance. Character states are "small (ratio = 0.8 or less)," "medium (ratio greater than 0.8, less than 1.2),", and "large (ratio = 1.2 or greater)." Thus the key provides illustrations to orient the user to (1) where on the insect the character is found, (2) what the character is and what it looks like, and (3) what the character states look like. Thus, the user is provided with not only descriptive language, but also images to compare of what is seen on the specimen under examination. The user may click on the state corresponding to that on the specimen under examination, then move to another character of interest.
The strength of Lucid keys over traditional dichotomous keys is that they are nonlinear. The user needn't follow the sequence of characters as they are presented in the key; he or she may go to a character that stands out in the specimen. For example, the sequence in which the characters are presented in this key begins with head characters and ends with abdominal characters. However, the user may simply go to an apparent abdominal (metasomal) character, then to a wing character, proceeding as most useful to the user.
After the user chooses and clicks on a character state, all species that do not possess that state are eliminated. The identification process thus involves a process of elimination, until only one species remains.
Links aligned at the top of each page direct the user to references including an introduction, labeled diagrams of body and wing morphology, an illustrated glossary, and the key.
There is a tendency for Tetrasphaeropyx males to show more variation than females (Fortier 2009). Because of this, the key is based on females. However, for those species in which there is significant sexual dichromatism and/or dimorphism, these sexual differences are noted for each such species in the key. For more images of each species, visit Morphbank. After opening Morphbank, click 'Browse,' then 'Taxon Name,' then 'Aleiodes Tetrasphaeropyx.' Then, click on the camera icon.
Centre for Biological Information Technology. 2007. Lucid 3.4. University of Queensland, Australia. http://www.lucidcentral.org
Fortier, J. C. 2009. A Revision of the Tetrasphaeropyx Ashmead lineage of genus Aleiodes Wesmael (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae). Zootaxa 2256: 1-126.