Jyrki Muona: Internet-based identification tool for Finnish Coleoptera

Our work is based on one aspect of the BIOCLEU project  (BIOdiveristy and CLadistics of EUcnemidae), which started with support from the Academy of Finland in 2002-2004. The false click-beetles are an old insect group with some 1.500 described species. Recent studies have shown them to be a major lignicolous group in closed forests in the tropical and subtropical regions. Ecological studies suggest they reflect forest history well, also in the hemiboreal regions, where most species are endangered.  

These features suggest that eucnemids could be used with success for assessing the conservation value of poorly known forest regions in the tropics. The BIOCLEU project aims to develop tools to do just that. The end product will allow the user to identify eucnemids from any region of the world over the internet. The database has as its backbone a completely new world check-list of the family. The identification tool is based on character information and images of both adults and larvae. The conservation value tool will take into account sampling effort, phylogenetic information and species level ecological information.

However, once in existence, the identification tool is in no way taxon specific. This prompted us to consider using it closer to home as well. Why not make identification of Finnish beetles freely accessible and easy for everyone interested? Our key idea is to translate the expert knowledge obtained during decades of work to something that for the user looks simple and easy.

The major problem in identifying Finnish beetles is the high number of species in combination with the difficulty in obtaining and using the relevant references. Little information exists in Finnish and a competent person should possess a working knowledge of at least Swedish, German and English. The structure of the keys is an additional and frequently underestimated problem. Keys are made by experts and often for experts. The user is forced to follow the characters the expert decided are the best, whether the user understands them or not. Computers offer new and much more flexible ways of looking at the problem. All characters can be illustrated by digital imaging and if a character appears problematic, the user can choose to try with another one. Clearly such an approach has much to recommend in it.

Our work uses Kevin Nixon’s (Cornell University) software for identification. This group of programs is based on a relational database and fulfills all the requirements we had. It is platform independent, working on all major computer systems as well as over the internet.

Our first goal is to have an internet-based key to all Fennoscandian beetle genera available by early 2007. The second phase will cover especially difficult groups to species level, most likely starting with the staphylinid subfamily Aleocharinae and other problematic, poorly understood groups (e.g. genera like Leiodes, Colon, Epuraea, Atomaria and Corticaria). All genera and species will be illustrated, and we aim at having images of both collection specimens and live ones from nature. Distributional and biological information will be included for all species.

Additional information:

Jyrki Muona, The Finnish Museum of Natural History , P.O.Box 17, 00014 University of Helsinki, tel. 09-191 44113, jyrki.muona(at)helsinki.fi