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[ Home ] [ Lucid Screen Layout ] [ Characters and States ] [ Character State Images ] [ Viewing State Images ] [ Choosing a State ] [ Taxon Information ] [ Lucid Menu Buttons ]
A quick explanation of the some of the Lucid menu buttons follows. Use Help on
the Lucid menu bar for a detailed explanation of all buttons.
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Restart: If you have finished an
identification and wish to start another, click on the restart button.
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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some character states other character states are no longer valid for the taxa left in the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.
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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.
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Bingo: Some character states listed
in characters available may apply to only
one of the remaining taxa, hence choosing such a state would immediately
reduce the taxa remaining list to a
single taxon. Such character states are called “bingo” states. To see
a list of bingo states, click the bingo
button on the toolbar. This button is best used when only a few taxa
remain.
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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.
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General Information: In some keys
additional information has been added. Check the
general Information box for any extra information. |
Some of the other important features of Lucid that can be accessed from
the top menus include:
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Slide Show: Choose Taxa, Slide Show, All Remaining Taxa, to view images associated with all of the remaining
insects in the key.
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Describe: Tells you how all
characters and states were defined by the author of the key. |
Use the Help in Lucid to fully explain all of the features available.
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