About the key

     This key provides an interactive identification tool designed to identify any Leucospis specimen to the species group level. The Lucid key recognizes 20 taxa of Leucospis, 16 species groups and 4 species sola (Darling and Cardinal 2005). Keys to the species are available in Boucek (1974).

How to use the key

Construction of key

     The only modification from Boucek (1974) involves the pediculata species-group, which is partitioned into the pediculata species-group (sensu stricto) and the micrura species-group. For each of the 70 species available for study, a total of 36 morphological characters were coded along with information on geographic distribution. A composite species group taxon was then coded using all of the character states of the included species.

     The photographs used in the key were taken with a Nikon Coolpix digital camera mounted to a dissecting microscope. The drawings were modified from Boucek (1974) and adjusted and annotated using Adobe Photoshop to highlight required structures.

     The notes pages provide information on the composition of each species group, its geographical distribution and recorded hosts for each species. Distributional data are largely from Boucek 1974, with some modifications to reflect recent political changes. A diagnosis and remarks section, slightly modified from Darling and Cardinal (2005), is also provided. There is also a photo gallery of the included species. The notes pages and images can be accessed any time by selecting the circle associated with the taxon names.

Errors

Authorship