Ozpest Preview

Introduction

Welcome to OzPest an interactive CD for the pest control industry. OzPest contains 3 main modules: Information (where information on pests, pesticides and pest control can be found), Identification (which opens LucID, an interactive identification key that uses pictures to help you identify organisms), and a Contacts Database (a customised database for the pest control industry).

Navigating through OzPest is easy and can be done in several ways. On the front screen the following buttons can be seen:

By clicking the information button a list appears. Choose any of these bars to enter that information section of OzPest.

A banner appears at the top of each page to show you which section you are in and where you can navigate to from there. The hyperlinks at the top of the screen will take you to higher levels or show you what is available on the same level. The coloured buttons, will take you to a lower level within the module.

While you are in OzPest the following buttons always appear at the top of the screen. These buttons can also be used to navigate your way through the CD. These buttons are part of the Generic Information Software Tools (GIST) developed by CBIT.

back	forward	reload	stop	home	search	print	about

 

Search

The search function provides a quick and easy way to find information on the OzPest CD. Search by typing into the box the key word or string of words you want to find. Below we have used "termite" as the key word.

A search on termite produces the following table of results. The coloured and underlined words are hyperlinks to the pages containing the word(s) searched for. The page listed first shows the highest number of times the word appears. It is not necessarily the page that gives you the information you require. Look at the Document Title to see which page you want to view, e.g. you may require information on the Dampwood termite and would therefore choose the third hyperlink in the list.

The buttons and hyperlinks take you in and out of modules and to new sections of OzPest.

Video

Video clips have been included on the CD to illustrate particular aspects of pest control. To view these videos simply click on the button where the video occurs.

Lucid (Identification)

LucID is an interactive key developed by the University of Queensland. LucID differs from traditional dichotomous keys where the user follows a set path depending on the answers to questions given concerning characteristics of the insect or other organism being identified. In LucID you do not have to begin at the start of the key, but can start anywhere, depending on what you can comfortably identify on your insect specimen. If the antennae are not present on your specimen, for instance, you can skip this character and choose another. In traditional keys, if the antennae were missing you may not be able to proceed any further with your identification. To help you understand and use LucID, read the following tutorial and then open LucID from the Identification button on the front screen.

When you open any one of the LucID keys from the identification button, a front screen appears. The Key to Urban Insect Pests has been used in this example. The book button has information about the key, e.g. who was involved, who supplied pictures, etc. To start the key click once on the key button and click on the door button to exit LucID.

As soon as you open a key the following screen made up of four separate windows (Characters Available, Character States Chosen, Taxa Discarded and Taxa Remaining)appears. At the start of an identification no character states have been chosen and no taxa have been discarded.

To begin an identification go to the Characters Available screen and look through the list of characters. By clicking on the character "General Appearance" the list of states will appear.

To choose a state you can either double click on the words or click once and drag it to the Character States Chosen window. To help you decide which character and state is true for your specimen, click on the information button. Images for each character state will appear.

To view a larger image, click once on the image and drag it to the slide projector button . Alternatively press the control button on your keyboard and click once with the mouse. A number of large pictures can be viewed at once and you can move these over the screen to make comparisons.

To choose a state click twice on the small image. LucID will automatically scroll to the next character and display the state images. To close the state images screen close the door.

By choosing Termite-like in the example we have discarded 23 insects from the taxa list and have 4 remaining. There are several options for completing the identification. You could choose another character; use the Best option to pick the best character for you; accept the identification as finished; or view the information available for the insects remaining. Click on the in front of the insect you wish to learn more about. Two buttons will pop open - notes and images.

A quick explanation of the some of the buttons follows. Use Help on the menu bar for a detailed explanation of all buttons.

• Restart: If you have finished an identification and wish to start another, click on the restart button.
• Prune Redundants: After selecting some character states other character states are no longer valid for the taxa left in the taxa remaining window. Use the prune redundants button to discard these character states so that you are not wasting time and effort on characters that will not help to identify the insect.
• Best: This button is very important for working your way through the key. After making a selection and narrowing down the taxa remaining you can use the "Best" button. The character which will help the most in narrowing down the taxa remaining even more will appear at the top of the characters available window. The second best character will appear below this. Since this "best" character is statistically determined, it may not always be the best character for you, so look at the list and choose the easiest character. Best can be chosen at every step in an identification.
• General Information: In some keys additional information on insects and entomological supplies has been added. Check the general information box for any extra information.
• Exit: Close the door if you wish to exit LucID.

Some of the other important features of LucID include:

• Slide Show: Choose Taxa, Slide Show, All Remaining Taxa, to view images associated with all of the remaining insects in the key.
• Similarities and Differences: Choose two taxa and look at the similarities and differences between them. If you had two insects and could not separate them, you can look to see what character might be useful for you to make a decision.
• Describe: Tells you how all characters and states were defined by the writer of the key.

Use the Help in LucID to explain all of the features available.

Contacts

A database of the pest control industry is available including both people and companies. When the contacts database is opened a list of people will be seen, run the cursor over the list and choose the person you wish to find. Click on either the "People" or "Company Details" buttons to find the contact you require. Alternatively use the alphabet buttons to get to the name quickly. If a browser and Internet connection is on your computer, links to personal web pages can be followed.

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