Task 9

Tools of the trade

For this task I was asked to discuss the range of tools I have come across when identifying animals and plants. 

Here I describe some of the types of tools I have used, as well as provide a few examples.

Dichotomous keys provide 2 choices at each step (a couplet), that leads on to another couplet and so on. They are usually detailed and often attempt to minimise the steps needed to arrive at a solution. However, they are prone to providing ‘roadblocks’, if it is not clear what the options in a couplet are or the feature is not present or obscured in some way then it can prevent you from continuing. There can be a lot of back and forth working through the key, only to have to retrace your steps if it doesn’t key out correctly.

Matrix keys allow you to make multiple selections/options to choose from. It isn’t normally done in paper form as it is hard to do but that is not necessarily a problem (unless it is a key that is online only and where you are attempting to use it has no signal). It allows you to pick a starting point for identification so can be quicker than a traditional dichotomous key that requires you to go through many options to get to where you need to.

Throughout the Taxonomy and Identification course I have used both types of key, an example of some dichotomous keys I’ve used are shown here. For matrix keys, please see Apps or Online Resources.

Taxonomic keys

A key to the major groups of British terrestrial invertebrates

(Tilling, 2014)

This key, part of the AIDGAP series, is a key to determine which group an invertebrate is in e.g. Diptera, Hemiptera etc. It was used in the first practical session when organising specimens. I found this an easy-to-use key (when the specimen is complete). As my knowledge and understanding of invertebrates increases I think I will use this key less as, at best, the key goes down to Sub-order level and this maybe something I can get to quickly without a key. Good as an introductory key though.

The Carabidae (Ground Beetles) of Britain and Ireland

(Luff, 2011)

This key was used as part of the Carabid identification and curation task. I found the drawings useful in understanding the characters being described. However, as a dichotomous key there were moments where the feature wasn’t visible on the specimen e.g. it was glued which meant there was no way forward, causing me to have to ‘guess’ and follow a route to see if it keyed out.

Family Staphylinidae key to UK subfamilies

(Hackston, 2019)

This key was used as part of the Carabid identification and curation task, 1 of the specimens was a Staphylinid and this was the key I found to use. The author has produced a number of keys for invertebrates that are free to download and use.

Grasses: a guide to identification using vegetative characters

(Wallace, 2021)

I have used this key in identifying grasses, in preparation for the taxonomic collections as part of this course. It also provides photos of the species that key out. Although it makes clear that the key should be used on the vegetative shoot only, as the flowering stem may have different characteristics. Due to the similarities in grasses, I have not found the book overly easy to use (more due to my inexperience rather than the key) and have had to go back and check/compare across different books to determine a species.

Guide-books and field guides can be useful in aiding identification of species. They may require some prior knowledge, or expectation, of identification before being used. As they may not have a key to aid in this. This can mean that you spend a long time flicking through pages looking for similar pictures (which isn’t necessarily going to get you to a correct ID!). They can contain very useful details for use in identification though. Depending on how they are set out they may contain information to identify a species in the field, where a more complete identification to confirm may require a detailed key. Some examples I have used are shown below.

Guide-books/field guides

The quick invertebrate guide

(Bulbert, Ginn and Howells, 2007)

This free guide provides a quick guide to major groups of Australian invertebrates. It was provided in the first practical session to aid with organising specimens. Although it is aimed at an Australian audience, it has relevance to the UK when determining what order an invertebrate is in. It provides simple descriptions to aid identification and is well designed for beginners.

Winter trees: a photographic guide to common trees and shrubs

(Price and Bersweden, 2013)

This guide proved valuable in the winter twig task, providing clear photographs to compare to as well as describing similar species. When used in conjunction with the associated key it was very useful, and I will use this again in the future.

Collins wild flower guide

(Streeter et al., 2016)

This book provides a decent guide to British wildflowers, with illustrations and short descriptions. It has keys for most families and genera, that contain more than 4 or 5 species, along with illustrations and short descriptions of the species. It is very useful to have a single book that covers so much. For further detail on some families, e.g. Poaceae, I recommend using other resources in conjunction with this book to get more detail.

British and Irish moths: Third edition: A photographic guide

(Manley, 2021)

This book was provided in the session on moth identification. It had photographs that could be used to aid identification, along with a brief description of the species e.g. its habitat, distribution etc. I found it useful when used in conjunction with other resources, to help narrow down the choices. Essentially going through photos of species and seeing which look like the specimen in question may be a time-consuming task, so I found it important to have a starting point.

Grasses of the British Isles

(Cope et al., 2009)

This book feels definitive in its descriptions of grass species and has lots of detail. It provides details on the grass structure, habitat etc. as well as excellent drawings of each species. On its own I think it would be very hard to use to identify a species however when used in conjunction with other resources it has allowed me to check my identification.

A field guide to grasses, sedges and rushes

(Price, 2021)

This book uses habitat, or photos of inflorescence, as the starting point of trying to identify grasses. It had a brief description of some diagnostic features and photos of each species. I have used this as part of my taxonomic collections work and with other resources to provide more details have been happy using it.

Identifying bats in flight: An introduction to field techniques

(Bat Conservation Trust, no date)

This booklet provides a guide that focuses on identifying bats in the field, so details their call and flight characteristics. I ordered this booklet when I joined the Bat Conservation Trust – Discover your local bats webinar. I have briefly read it through, and it looks as though it would be of use, however I have yet to use it in identifying bats.

There are numerous apps available for mobile devices that can help identification in the field. These can take the form of guides, or keys, or even auto-id features based on photographs or sounds. They are very useful as a quick method for making a start at identification without having to carry or open lots of different books. Care needs to be taken when using auto-ID features to check and confirm you are happy with the suggestion!

Apps

iRecord

(Biological Records Centre, 2024)

This app allows you to submit records of sightings that will then be sent to the relevant recording scheme to be verified/checked. As well as this, there is an ID feature for photos uploaded in the app. I have used this simple ID to ‘check’ some of my identifications before submission. It doesn’t always get it correct but with careful use it can be appropriate. See iRecord for details on how I have used this tool.

Flora incognita

(Mäder, P. and Wäldchen, J., 2024)

This app allows you to store recordings but also allows photo ID. You can select if it is a flower, or grass, tree etc. and take photos of the specimen. It will then provide a % match. I have found that I use this app, the PlantNet one and iRecord together to aid my identification.

PlantNet

(CIRAD et al., 2024)

In a similar way to Flora Incognita, this app allows you to upload photos of a specimen and it will attempt to identify it with % match being shown. It allows you to specify different parts of the plant e.g. flower, leaf etc. It will then return images taken by other users that are tagged as that species so you can compare. Again, I use this app in combination with Flora Incognita and iRecord to aid with identification – but none of these are always correct, so care must be taken not to follow its identification, or rely on it, without understanding more about the organism (or using another source of information).

Collins Bird Guide

(Svensson et al, 2023)

This is the Collins Bird Guide but as an app. I like the portability of always having it on my phone. It is nice to have the birds here, but I find unless I have a good idea of what species it is, it is not easy to use for identification. I don’t find the searching ability to be that useful. It is more use as a reference to check.

Merlin Bird ID

(Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2024)

This app allows identification by photo, or by sound recording. I have only tried the sound recording ID briefly; it identified a blackbird and a robin in my garden. If it can work in other situations it may really help me, as I find unless someone points out an unknown bird call to me I wouldn’t know how to go about determining what it would be.

Tree ID - British trees

(Woodland Trust, 2024)

This app provides a list of common UK trees and a key that you can use to narrow down the options. You can select multiple items such as leaf, flower, fruit etc. to start and then use the options. It helpfully shows you how many possibilities your options are reducing it to after each answer, so if it gets down to say 3 options you can always see what they all are and look at the details. I have used this app a few times and it does work OK. More detailed keys/guides are available though.

Echo Meter Touch Bat Detector

(Wildlife Acoustics Inc., 2024)

This app allows you to connect the Echo Meter Touch 2 (and Touch 2 Pro) hardware to turn your device into a bat detector. It allows you to visualise bat calls and includes an auto-ID function. Whilst I don’t have the hardware, I have seen/used it whilst on the bat walk so I have seen how it auto-IDs bats based on their echolocation calls. I was impressed at how it did this compared with a heterodyne bat detector which required manually scanning of frequencies (although the range did seem better with the heterodyne). I look forward to trying this application/hardware more.

There are many resources available online, such as image databases, atlases and species distribution, keys, descriptions etc. There are also sites that try and compile all these resources in one place so that they are easy to find. Whilst there is potentially so much of use online, it can be hard to find it, or indeed, know that it exists. Links to sites are shown in the References.

Online resources

What's flying tonight

(Butterfly Conservation et al., no date)

This resource allows you to select a data and location to view what moths are likely to be flying that night. This is handy when assessing specimens collected in heath traps, say, such as for the practical session on moths. By using this tool in conjunction with other resources, such as field guides, I was able to identify the moths that were collected (even with very limited experience). I found the tool easy to use and it provides a good starting point to narrow down the options available to you. Care should be taken as there is a chance the moth found may not be listed as being in flight at the time of year you select. Climate change and other variables affecting weather patterns, as well as other considerations, may affect when moths are flying but nevertheless, I think this is a useful tool for identifying moths.

Bat Tree Habitat Key

(Bat Conservation Trust, 2024)

This database (spreadsheet) is available to download and is periodically updated. It contains records of where bats have been found roosting, so it is possible to filter results to see what species the habitat you are looking at may hold. The project allows you to update with your own records to add to the knowledgebase. In the lecture I created a pivot table to easily filter the results. This allows me to see, for example, that in ‘Woodland/Coniferous/Plantation’ the Natterer’s bat (Myotis nattereri) has been found in wounds of sycamore trees. This may be useful in identifying a species found in similar situations. I have not used this tool in practice but believe it could be valuable in narrowing down options, or at least seeing likely options, for species identification.

Key to groups of British grasses

(Field Studies Council, 2024a)

This is an online matrix key that allows you select from lists of options e.g. Inflorescence, spikelet shape etc. that will gradually categorise common groups as being Most Likely or Least Likely based on the options chosen. I have used this as part of the taxonomic collections work when trying to confirm/narrow down identifications. I found it useful with good descriptions of the characters it is asking you to use. I have only used it on my laptop at home, yet as it is available through a browser it is possible to use it in the field (if signal allows!).

ID Resources

(National Biodiversity Network Trust, 2024a)

This website has links to numerous resources. Including links to purchase fold-out identification guides from FSC. I have a number of these that are useful when casually trying to identify species. There are also some great links to Steven Falk’s Flickr collection. I have not used this, but I have seen that there are some really great photographs of Heteroptera, e.g. Pentatomidae (shield-bugs/stink-bugs) that look as though they will prove useful in my taxonomic collection coursework.

ID Resource Finder

(Field Studies Council, 2024b)

Another useful website containing links to numerous ID resources such as field guides and keys. Not all are free, some are links to purchasable guides. As this site is provided by FSC many of the purchasable guides are available through them. It is useful to have many different guides/topics in the same place.

Search for taxa

(National Biodiversity Network Trust, 2024b)

NBN Atlas allows you to search for species records and view a distribution map. As all specimens should have a location recorded, you can check whether the species you have identified is typically found there. As species ranges shift just because a species has not been found in a location doesn’t necessarily mean the ID is incorrect, but the tool can be used to look at likely candidates. I have used this a few times, including when searching for particular trees for the winter twig task, and found it useful.

Presentation and webinars can contain invaluable information to help with identifying species, including potential ‘shortcuts’ or tips that might not be detailed in books/guides. I have found presentations on both bats and grasses very informative. The only difficulty is ensuring that the information is then readily accessible at a later date. For example, I made detailed notes in the Grasses presentation yet a question remains on how I can have these notes in a useful format for taking out into the field?

Other resources

Presentations/webinars

Experts

Experts in their taxonomic field are a resource that should be used when possible! You will find out a lot about an organism from someone who knows it well. For anything that is tricky to identify they can assist, and can be valuable to verify any IDs made. The records submitted in iRecord are sent to volunteers from various recording schemes to verify which is an important step – as species data that isn’t correct could ultimately inform incorrect conservation decisions. As part of the carabid session at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History I proceeded through the key and checked against the reference collection before identifying what I thought the species was. After consulting with Dr Darren Mann it turns out that I’d incorrectly identified it as a very rare species of carabid that it most definitely wasn’t!

Experts

The main purpose of a reference collection is so that it can be referred to. When making identification, comparing to a reference can help to check your understanding. This may not be against the type specimen (unless required) but reference collections have been checked by experts and are a valuable resource.

Reflection

There are many different tools that can be used to identify species. Each has pros and cons but I have found that the best way is to use a combination of tools depending on the circumstance. A key can be used to get to an answer, with the resulting descriptions/illustrations checked in a guide. Or perhaps a particular guide is laid out in a way that gets you to an answer quicker, which can then be checked using a key. Or perhaps checked with an auto-id function in an app. For difficult to ID specimens, access to experts and reference collections can be very beneficial. There is no single ‘best’ way to arrive at a correct ID. Use all of the tools at your disposal, whilst being aware of their limitations.

References

Mäder, P. and Wäldchen, J. (2024) Flora incognita. Technische Universität Ilmenau, Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie Available at: https://floraincognita.com/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Manley, C. (2021) British and Irish moths: third edition: A photographic guide. 3rd edn. London: Bloomsbury Wildlife. Bloomsbury Naturalist.

National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) (2024a) ID Resources. Available at: https://nbn.org.uk/tools-and-resources/tools-for-recording-and-mapping/nbn-toolbox/id-resources/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) (2024b) Explore Your Area. Available at: https://species.nbnatlas.org/ (Accessed: 15 May 2024).

Price, D. and Bersweden, L. (2013) Winter trees: a photographic guide to common trees and shrubs. Telford: Field Studies Council.

Price, D. (2021) A field guide to grasses, sedges and rushes. The Species Recovery Trust.

Streeter, D., Hart-Davies, C., Hardcastle, A., Cole, F. and Harper, L. (2016) Collins wild flower guide. Revised and updated 2nd edition. edn. London: William Collins.

Svensson, L., Mullarney, K., Zetterström, D. and Christie, D. A. (2023) Collins Bird Guide. Available at: https://www.natureguides.com/collins-on-android (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Tilling, S. (2014) A key to the major groups of British terrestrial invertebrates. Second edition. edn. Telford: FSC.

Wallace, H. (2021) Grasses: A Guide to Identification Using Vegetative Characters. Field Studies Council.

Wildlife Acoustics Inc. (2024) Echo Meter Touch 2. Available at: https://www.wildlifeacoustics.com/products/echo-meter-touch-2 (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Woodland Trust (2024) British Trees. Available at: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/tree-id-app/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Bat Conservation Trust (no date) Identifying bats in flight: An introduction to field techniques. Bat Consevation Trust.

Bat Conservation Trust (2024) Bat Tree Habitat Key. Available at: http://battreehabitatkey.co.uk/?page_id=18 (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Biological Records Centre (2024) iRecord. Available at: https://irecord.org.uk/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Butterfly Conservation, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and UKMoths (no date) Whats flying tonight. Available at: https://connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/whats_flying_tonight/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Bulbert, M., Ginn, S. and Howells, A. (2007) The Quick Invertebrate Guide. Australian Museum Available at: https://media.australian.museum/media/dd/Uploads/Documents/9379/Quick+Invertebrate+Guide.4e16695.pdf (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

CIRAD, INRAE, INRIA and IRD (2024) Pl@ntNet. Available at: https://plantnet.org/en/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Cope, T. A., Gray, A. J., Tebbs, M. C. and Ashton, P. (2009) Grasses of the British Isles. Botanical Society of the British Isles.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology (2024) Merlin Bird ID. Available at: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Field Studies Council (FSC) (2024a) Key to Groups of British Grasses. Available at: https://www.fscbiodiversity.uk/fullscreen/grassesv1 (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Field Studies Council (FSC) (2024b) ID Resource Finder. Available at: https://www.fscbiodiversity.uk/idsignpost (Accessed: 14 May 2024).

Hackston, M. (2019) Family Staphylinidae key to UK subfamilies. Keys for the identification of British Staphylinidae Available at: https://sites.google.com/view/mikes-insect-keys/mikes-insect-keys/keys-for-the-identification-of-british-beetles-coleoptera/keys-for-the-identification-of-british-staphylinidae (Accessed: 7 March 2024).

Luff, M. L. (2011) The Carabidae (Ground Beetles) of Britain and Ireland. Published for the Royal Entomological Society by the Field Studies Council. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects.