What Bug Is That? The guide to Australian insect families.

Logo: What Bug Is That? Logo: Taxonomy Research & Information Network

Overview

Insects have always been a challenge to identify because of their extremely high diversity. We estimate there are approximately 200,000 species of insects in Australia, and these are placed in about 640 families and 24–26 orders. By utilising modern identification tools, this project aims to facilitate the identification of Australian insects.

While the project's intellectual roots are in the dichotomous, paper-based keys to order and family found in CSIRO’s Insects of Australia (2nd Edition 1991), the goal is to update those keys, and wherever possible, use modern computer-based identification tools, whether they be dichotomous or matrix keys.

The project provides a stable web environment and clearing house for keys to any hierarchical level. While we have begun with keys to the Orders and families within each order, there is scope to attach or add keys to genera and species, and we have provided these where they are available (for example Diptera: Tabanidae).

Audience

The keys are aimed at an advanced undergraduate or early postgraduate level, although we hope that the key to orders is accessable even to less experienced users. John Trueman and undergraduate students at the Australian National University have road tested keys and developed some keys as part of 3rd year projects.

Funding and resources

The building blocks of the project were enabled by the Commonwealth Environmental Research Facility Taxonomic Research and Information Facility (2007–2010) by funding the conversion of existing keys to family for the web, and the development of some keys from scratch.

The interactive keys on the site are built with Lucid3 and deployed using the Lucid Key Server available at Lucidcentral.org.

CSIRO matching funds for the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) has allowed us to source and digitise many of the images of insects in the keys. The information in the family fact sheets has been stored in BioLink so that it can be used elsewhere on the web, such as in the ALA. Keys to the families of Diptera and Hymenoptera, recently published on CD ROM from projects funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), form the nucleus of the project.

We are grateful to our collaborators from around Australia and the world who have provided interactive keys, or allowed us to link to other web identification resources.

 

Project Team

Project Co-Ordinator

David Yeates

 

Biolink

Stephen Shattuck

 

Technical support

Fiona Spier, Dena Paris and Anne Hastings

 

Collaborators by Order

Order Current Key type Adapted from Authors / Contributors Future Key Contributors
Insecta Lucid3   CBIT
Holometabola Larvae Lucid3   Michael Rix and Greg Daniels
Archaeognatha One family, no key
Thysanura Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Dena Paris, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences  
Thysanura: Genera Dichotomous   G. B. Smith
Ephemeroptera Lucid3   P.J.Suter and J. Webb, Taxonomy Research and Information Network (TRIN), Department of Environmental Management and Ecology, La Trobe University, Albury-Wodonga, Victoria
Odonata Dichotomous   John Trueman, Australian National University  
Blattodea (incl. Isoptera) Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Dr Beth Mantle, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Mantodea Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Dena Paris, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences  
Plecoptera Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Fiona Spier, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Phasmatodea Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Fiona Spier, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences  
Dermaptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition)   Gerry Cassis, University of New South Wales
Orthoptera Lucid3   Danswell Starr (ANU undergraduate project)  
Embioptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition) E. S. Ross
Psocoptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition)    
Phthiraptera Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Natalie Banks, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Hemiptera: Coccoidea Lucid3   Rung, A, G. Venable, D. Miller and R. Gill, USDA SEL  
Hemiptera: Heteroptera Lucid3   Gerry Cassis (University of New South Wales) and Michael Elliot (Australian Museum)  
Hemiptera: Aphidoidea Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition)    
Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha Dichotomous   Murray Fletcher, DPI NSW  
Thysanoptera Lucid3   Laurence Mound, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Neuroptera Lucid3   Shaun Winterton, Queensland Department of Primary Industries
Megaloptera Lucid3   Shaun Winterton, Queensland Department of Primary Industries
Coleoptera Lucid3   John Laurence, Ainsley Seago, Adam Slipinski, and Anne Hastings (CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences)
Strepsiptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition) J. Kathirithamby and R. Kinzelbach
Mecoptera Lucid3 Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Dena Paris, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences  
Siphonaptera Lucid3   Dena Paris, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences  
Diptera Lucid3 On-The-Fly Joanna Hamilton, David Yeates, Anne Hastings, Don Colless, Chris Manchester (CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences), David McAlpine, Dan Bickel (Australian Museum), Greg Daniels and Margaret Schneider (University of Queensland), Peter Cranston (University of California Davis USA) and Stephen Marshall (University of Guelph, Canada)
Diptera: Tabanidae Lucid3   Chris Manchester, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
Trichoptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition)   Alice Wells, Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS), Department of Environment Heritage and the Arts
Lepidoptera Dichotomous Insects of Australia (Second Edition) Marianne Horak, Ted Edwards, You Ning Su, and Anne Hastings (CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences)
Hymenoptera Lucid3 What Wasp is That? Nick Stevens, Claire Stephens, Muhammad Iqbal, John Jennings and Andy Austin (University of Adelaide) and John La Salle (CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences)

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