Frontpage of the Antkey.org site
UPDATE: The Antkey.org project was released November 2012. See the announcement page for overview.
I am designing user-friendly identification guides to increase the capacity of port personnel, conservationists, and general biologists to identify invasive ants. The web-based guides use a new generation of identification tools. The Lucid3 matrix-based keys render the identification process more intuitive and efficient than traditional dichotomous keys.
Vector-based line drawings are used to illustrate character states and glossary terms. High-resolution digital specimen photographs are used to highlight species-level characters.
Video clips demonstrate useful characters for field identification. Species pages detail diagnostic characters, comparison charts, image galleries, nomenclature, references and links.
Web Resources
Antkey (www.antkey.org). An identification guide to invasive, introduced and commonly intercepted ants of the United States (including Hawaii).
Piakey. An illustrated web-based identification guide to the invasive ants of the Pacific Islands.
References
Sarnat, E.M. and A.V. Suarez. 2012. Antkey. University of Illinois and Identification Technology Program, CPHST, PPQ, APHIS, USDA. [Accessed: date you accessed site]. <http://Antkey.org>
Sarnat, EM (Dec. 4th, 2008) PIAkey: Identification guide to invasive ants of the Pacific Islands, Edition 2.0, Lucid v. 3.4. USDA/APHIS/PPQ Center for Plant Health Science and Technology and University of California — Davis. [http://itp.lucidcentral.org/id/ant/pia]
