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Diagnoses, Descriptions and Keys Diagnoses and Descriptions: PIs and collaborators are also discussing a common format and software platform for descriptions, diagnoses and other taxonomic information. This format must be well structured and maximally informative, able to accommodate data from prior studies, usable on the internet, in publications and phylogenetic analysis. Previously used by the PI and his research group, DELTA (http://delta-intkey.com/), its SQL interface, DeltaAccess (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/Projects/DeltaAccess/), and Nexus Data Editor (http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/NDE/nde.html), a sister-program for phylogenetic data matrices, have been chosen as the preferred software combination. Descriptions of new taxa will be generated automatically from data entered into DELTA. As all previously described taxa are being re-examined and scored in the data matrix, revised diagnoses and descriptions will be prepared for them also
Identification Keys: As an alternative to dichotomous keys, interactive, eliminative keys to vaejovid subfamilies, genera and species will be produced using LucID (http://www.lucidcentral.com/) or IntKey (http://delta-intkey.com/) and online, using the Discover Life website. Rather than being forced to start with a particular dichotomous character, interactive keys enable the user to scroll through available characters until a familiar feature is observed. This leads to a definitive identification or a limited set of candidates. Because any character can have multiple eliminative states, such keys eliminate unconforming taxa after a state is chosen. There is no need to answer all state assignment queries for all characters to obtain a diagnosis―users need only sort through as many characters as necessary.
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