Each image file is associated with metadata, including...
- Media galleries. Current galleries include 'taxon images', 'character states', 'glossary terms', 'specimen photographs', 'line drawings' and 'live photographs'.
- Taxonomic name. When an image is tagged with a specific taxonomic name that occurs is included in the site's classification, the image will dynamically appear in the media tab of the relevant taxon page.
- License. All the media included in Antkey, unless otherwise stated, is licensed under the Creative Common Attribution, Share Alike (CC BY-SA) license.
- Imaging technique. Current Imaging techniques include 'line drawing', 'automontage photograph' and 'field photograph'.
- Keywords. Character state and glossary term images are tagged with morphological keywords.
- Description. Each image is tagged with a description. For example, taxon images are tagged with the taxonomic name and specimen identification number, and character state and glossary images are tagged with descriptions of the character state and what it is used for.
- Sticky at top of lists. Images tagged as 'sticky' automatically appear at the top of all lists. For example, taxon images are tagged as sticky so that they appear first in their relevant taxon pages.
- Creator. All images are attributed to their creator.
A faceted search tool allows users to refine their search results by selecting one or multiple image terms. For example, selecting 'petiole shape' from the list of keywords will return all images that are tagged with the keyword 'petiole shape'. Selecting 'line drawings' from the list of media galleries will further refine the image set to all line drawings that involve the shape of the petiole. Selecting 'Tetramorium' from the taxonomic name list will further refine the image set to only line drawings involving the petiole shape of Tetramorium species.
Each thumbnail links to a 'lightbox' window that displays the standard scaled image and associated metadata, and also offers a link to download the original, full-sized image.