Timber Answers provides technical information about wood properties, and uses of over 1 000 species of Australian and imported timbers, including those commonly grown in plantations.

The interactive selection tool allows species to be filtered and sorted according to a number of common properties.

Timber Answers provides technical data to help builders, designers and engineers choose which timber to use. It enables growers and processors optimise use of the timber resource.

Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) are a cosmopolitan group of ~ 2,500 beetle species with rampant misclassification (Martin et al. 2019). This is in part due to morphological variation within genera and between genders. The problem arises when authors base classification on these variable morphologies. Based on this (Martin et al. 2019) recent reclassification there are ~145 genera in 10 subfamilies.

Here we present a key to the world genera of fireflies. This tool is based entirely on the males of the group, these being the most well-known and commonly encountered. Where possible the coding scheme is based on the type species. This project is necessarily a work in progress and various updates are already being planned. We welcome collaboration from all users of this tool.

Predictions about the biology, behaviour and ecology of an insect can often be made once you know to which of the 32 Orders that insect belongs. But how can you find this out?

Insects can be identified in various ways. Comparing a specimen with a book of illustrations of identified insects is one way; using a printed key to Insect Orders is an alternative. This Lucid Mobile Key to Insect Orders combines the advantages of both methods by adding a new dimension of simplicity and power to the process of identification. Designed for a range of users, including secondary school students, beginning undergraduates and anyone with an interest in entomology, this key uses the popular Lucid matrix system together with images of typical species within each Order to help identify to which Order most common adult insects belong. The fact sheets for each Order provide information about identifying features, the structure and biology of insect species within that Order, as well as other relevant information.

The 'Key to Insect Orders' was originally created by staff at the Department of Entomology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia but has recently been revised (2019) by Professor Steve Marshall at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Liogenys Guérin-Méneville, the most speciose Neotropical Diplotaxini, occurs from Panama throughout most of South America to southern Argentina and Chile and comprises about 95 species (Cherman et al. 2019). During the taxonomic revision of this genus (2011-2019) 38 new species were found occurring throughout South America, out of which only 23 species (the Brazilian species) have been already published.

This key was built to solve the identification of this huge genus. Up to now, the key comprises only the Brazilian Liogenys species. Despite that, new articles are being prepared with new species of the entire genus, together with redescriptions and nomenclatural acts. The key is going to be updated after each new publication.

The current release (last version) of the key includes 49 Liogenys species, plus five terminals which correspond to the New World Diplotaxini genera: Diplotaxis Kirby, Homalochilus Blanchard, Pachrodema Blanchard, Pacuvia Curtis and Liogenys, according to Cherman et al. (2016) phylogeny. The genera were included firstly to help in distinguishing Liogenys from the other New World Diplotaxini, but also has a long-term goal, which is to include non-Liogenys species of Diplotaxini. The key is based on adults, males and females, and primary types were studied for all the species.

This is a key and field guide to the Phylum Tardigrada in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  It has been developed as part of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) (www.dlia.org). The key is designed to cover ONLY species in the park, though it includes approximately 70% of the known eastern U.S. limno-terrestrial species (H. Meyer pers. com.).

Using it for specimens from other sites could give erroneous results.  Characters for taxa above the species level are based on a key to limno-terrestrial tardigrades (including Heterotardigrada and Eutardigrada) by Nelson & McInnes (2002) and a key to Eutardigrada by Pilato & Binda (2010).

For a current checklist of all known tardigrade species, and the authorities for each, go to the University of Modena Tardigrade Webpage.

Plant-parasitic nematodes are a major constraint to banana production. An important strategy for management is the use of non-host rotation crops that limit nematode feeding and reproduction.

This selection tool provides recommendations for Queensland horticultural industries on the most suitable rotation crop to manage a specific plant-parasitic nematode. Users enter as much or as little agronomic information as desired and the software will generate a list of responses conforming to that information.

The user is then able to browse the key and instantly open crop fact sheets with further details.

This revised version of Hoddle et al. (2012) has been produced partly to overcome technical problems arising from Java software and partly to incorporate new information and images, together with some additional potentially invasive species.

Information pages are provided to 300 species in 108 genera, with the identification system discriminating 249 species. Of these species, 40 are as yet unrecorded in California but are potential invaders, whether interstate or from overseas.

They have been included for the convenience of quarantine services in USA. In contrast, the Thysanoptera fauna of the American continent north of Mexico has been estimated to comprise 700 described thrips species (Arnett, 1985), with 147 species recorded from Canada (Foottit & Maw, 2019). This identification system is based essentially on adult females, these being the most commonly collected individuals.

For larval thrips, the only modern identification system is to part of the Thripidae fauna of Europe (Vierbergen et al., 2010).

About the key

A matrix key designed to allow maximum diagnostic inference from male or female specimens of Ips DeGeer, 1775, including damaged specimens.

Morphologically similar genera of Ipini, Orthotomicus and Pseudips, are included at genus level to help distinguish Ips from these other genera.

Numbers in parentheses in natural language descriptions indicate outlier values observed in only a few specimens.

Key accompanies an article in the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification (Douglas et al. in press). This article includes a dichotomous key, and illustrated diagnostic fact sheets for all Ips species and subspecies.

Douglas HB, Cognato AI, Grebennikov, V, Savard K. In Press. Dichotomous and matrix-based keys to the Ips bark beetles of the World (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 38: 234pp. doi:10.3752/cjai.2019.38.

URL: https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/ips_de_geer/

Identification key: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/salticidae/

The key is intended to meet the needs of naturalists, biologists and taxonomists who wish to identify Australian jumping spiders. The character set has high redundancy (99 characters, 293 character states) allowing users to begin with whatever observable characters are available to them when using photographs, a high-powered hand lens or a microscope.

An information sheet attached to each genus provides a list of known species and information on evolutionary relationships, distribution, habits, a simplified diagnosis, and some key references. A series of diagrams and photographs (of living specimens and of aspects of the morphology, including palps and epigynes) is provided for each genus.

Further information and instructions for using the key can be found in the document attached to ‘Salticidae’ in the top right hand quadrant of the key.

Please send comments, or suggestions for improving the key, and requests for assistance, to [email protected].

The key can be cited as Richardson, B.J., Whyte, R. and Żabka, M. (2019). A key to the genera of Australian jumping spiders (Aranaea: Salticidae). https://apps.lucidcentral.org/salticidae/

This key is illustrated with more than 2000 images of willow species and hybrids that are either wild or in cultivation in New Zealand, and the features that are used to identify them. Most illustrations are of willow clones grown in the national willow collection in Palmerston North maintained by Plant and Food NZ.

The key is designed for those with some experience in plant identification, and some features will need at least a strong hand lens (10x or better) to see features such as stamen filament hairs. It will be of use to bee-keepers, farmers with an interest in growing willows as bee food, and conservation estate managers who need to identify willows in the wild.

Writing of this key was funded by the Sustainable Farming Fund, Trees for Bees NZ, the Willow and Poplar Trust, Plant and Food NZ, and Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research.