An interactive key for Mona parasitoids

MONMANY, A. CAROLINA; MELÉNDEZ, E.

San Juan

Simposio; 2nd Annual Symposium of the External Scientific Advisory Committee.; 2007

Universidad de Puerto Rico

Parasitoids are insects that lay their eggs in or on other insects, many of which are pests. Most parasitoids are small insects (around 1 mm) in the orders Hymenoptera and Diptera. Due to their specialized reproductive strategy they have been used as agents of biocontrol. Identifying parasitoids is a difficult task due to their small body size, their small and highly variable populations and their high diversity. Previous studies report 9 families and 15 parasitoid genera in Mona Island (Ramos 1946, Torres y Snealing 1992). Our lab group has been working on the construction of a museum and digital reference collection for the parasitoids of Mona Island Reserve. The software Lucid3 is being used as a database for specimen information and for the creation of an interactive taxonomic key that facilitate the identification of taxa (e.g. orders, families, genera, species). This key provides multiple access to all morphological characteristics utilized and enables the addition of new relevant information during the specimen identification process.