In this tutorial, I demonstrate how to make the most effective use of the interactive Lucid3 key for identifying invasive and introduced ants. There are tips on how to use features like the 'best' and 'next best' buttons, what the different panels mean, how to make effective use of thumbnail and pop-up images and how to adjust the text size.
Antkey is pleased to announce a new gallery of tramp ants from around the world photographed by the extraordinarily talented photographer and entomologist, Alex Wild. These fantastic live photographs show in vivid detail the natural colors, behaviors and habitats that specimen images often fail to capture. To view more of Alex Wild's insect images visit his photogrpahy website (www.alexanderwild.com) and blog (www.myrmecos.net).
Welcome! This is the second day of development for Antkey, so don't be too disappointed that there is much content up. I plan to have the site ready for full use within four months. By then Antkey will feature a fully illustrated Lucid Key, an illustrated glossary, comparison charts and species pages.
Dear Antkey users, the site is currently being translated into Simplified Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian and Thai. The translations are being done on the live site, and issues occasionally arise. We apologize for any inconveniences this causes, and thank you for your patience. If you notice any issues that are not resolved within several days, please post a comment here or in the forum and we'll try to address it as soon as possible.
A new paper proposes a novel method for automated screening of the Red Imported Fire Ant.
New modules for Google Scholar and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) have been added to the Antkey site. Now when users go to taxon pages and click on the 'literature' tab, dynamic search results for that species from Google Scholar and BHL will be presented at the bottom of the page.
A new paper on how Wasmannia auropunctata causes increases in crop pests in Solomon Island subsistence gardens.
James Wetterer continues his excellent series on tramp ants with the samsum or sword ant, Pachycondyla sennaarensis." The species has not been reported in North America, but it sounds like it should be on the watch list.
Go to a species page, click the media tab, and you'll now see all the Antweb specimen images for that species with a link to the original specimen page (e.g. http://antkey.org/taxonomy/term/4807/media). One great thing about the Drupal-driven Scratchpads platform is that developers can contribute custom 'modules' that can plug in to the core code..
Antweb and Antwiki both have some excellent content, including species pages, maps, specimen images and literature. In order to make end-users aware of these pages, I added a new field in the taxon description content type called 'external links'. Now when the description tab is opened for a given species, links to that species respective pages on Antweb and Antwiki appear...
