Introduction to POLiKEY

POLiKEY is an interactive key and information retrieval system for polychaete families and higher taxa. It is underpinned by a DELTA database (Dallwitz 1980; Dallwitz, Paine & Zurcher 1993) and contains 104 taxa and 134 characters. The information system comprises an interactive identification programme, based on Intkey (Dallwitz, Paine & Zurcher 1995), which includes general biological information, taxonomic descriptions, diagnoses and illustrations for each taxon. Over 300 colour-enhanced line drawings of taxonomically important features are provided to assist identification and more than 200 line drawings and colour photos illustrate both living polychaetes and museum specimens. An extensive glossary of technical terms and a comprehensive bibliography complete the package.

POLiKEY allows the user to obtain:

1. identifications of adult polychaetes from any part of the world to family or a higher taxonomic level.
2. diagnostic and full descriptions of families and higher taxa.
3. general information on taxonomy, biology and ecology for all families and higher taxa.
4. additional information on each taxon via an extensive bibliography and an automated Web search on the taxon name.

Source of Data

POLiKEY began as DELTA database of 82 family-level taxa and 95 characters prepared by Kristian Fauchald in 1995. The original data set has been substantially revised, fully illustrated and updated to reflect recent research at the family level and above. The primary additional data source, including illustrations, for POLiKEY is Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Glasby, C.J. (eds) 2000. Polychaetes & Allies. The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia Vol 4A. Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula. CSIRO Publishing : Melbourne. xii + 465 pp. Information on the few families that were not treated by Beesley, Ross & Glasby (2000) was sourced from Rouse & Pleijel (2001): this latter text was also used as a basis for the classification above family level, for information on family taxonomic authorities, and as a source of recent ideas on character evolution.

Disclaimer

POLiKEY should be able to provide the correct identification for almost all post-larval polychaete specimens found anywhere in the World. Notable exceptions are if the specimen belongs to an undescribed family (very unlikely), if the specimen belongs to a family in which some members undergo a drastic metamorphosis at sexual maturity (e.g., some Syllidae), or if the specimen is a juvenile of a group that undergoes strong ontogenetic changes associated with cephalisation (e.g., some Hesionidae). Other keys are available for the identification of polychaete larvae (e.g., Bhaud & Cazaux 1982, 1987). Please contact the authors if you suspect that POLiKEY gave an incorrect identification, if you find errors in the system, or if you have comments on ways to improve the system.

Future versions and development

It is anticipated that future versions of POLiKEY will be enhanced by:

• provision of full listings of polychaete genera of the World through a Web link to the Polychaete Nomenclator database being developed by Kristian Fauchald.

• access to a Web version of Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. & Glasby, C.J. (eds) 2000. Polychaetes & Allies. The Southern Synthesis. Fauna of Australia Vol 4A. Polychaeta, Myzostomida, Pogonophora, Echiura, Sipuncula. CSIRO Publishing : Melbourne xii + 465 pp.

• provision of html pages for selected species including those known to have been introduced (i.e., adventive or exotic species), species used in teaching marine biology courses, species used in ecotoxicology and species used in aquaculture.

POLiKEY will be integrated together with interactive keys to world genera, and species of Australia in the forthcoming CD ROM publication Polychaetes: Interactive Identification and Information Retrieval (by R.S. Wilson, P.A. Hutchings & C.J. Glasby, eds), CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.

References to DELTA

For a complete list of references on DELTA documentation, methodology and applications see http://www.biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/www/refs.htm

Aiken, S.G. & Dallwitz, M.J. (1999). Interactive, illustrated taxonomic databases: a way to communicate information. Pp. 292–304 in Nordal, I. & Razzhivin, V.Yu. (eds) The species concept in the High North — A Panarctic Flora initiative. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters : Oslo

Askevold, I.S. & O’Brien, C.W. (1994). DELTA, an invaluable computer program for generation of taxonomic monographs. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 87: 1–16

Cavalcanti, M.J. (1996). Introdução ao sistema DELTA. Universidade Santa Úrsula : Rio de Janeiro 24 pp.

Dallwitz, M.J. (1974). A flexible computer program for generating identification keys. Systematic Zoology 23: 50–7

Dallwitz, M.J. (1980). A general system for coding taxonomic descriptions. Taxon 29: 1–6

Dallwitz, M.J. (1984). Automatic typesetting of computer-generated keys and descriptions. Pp. 279–290 in Allkin, R. & Bisby, F.A. (eds) Databases in Systematics. Systematics Association Special Volume No. 26. Academic Press : London

Dallwitz, M.J. (1988). A flexible clustering method based on UPGMA and ISS. Unpublished. See also Aiken, S.G., Dallwitz, M.J., McJannet, C.L., & Consaul, L.L. (1997).

Dallwitz, M.J. (1989). Diagnostic descriptions from INTKEY and CONFOR. DELTA Newsletter 3: 8–13

Dallwitz, M.J. (1989). Diagnostic descriptions for groups of taxa. DELTA Newsletter 4: 8–13

Dallwitz, M.J. (1992). A comparison of matrix-based taxonomic identification systems with rule-based systems. Pp. 215–218 in Xiong, F.L. (ed.) Proceedings of IFAC workshop on expert systems in agriculture. International Academic Publishers : Beijing

Dallwitz, M.J. (1993). DELTA and INTKEY. Pp. 287–296 in Fortuner, R. (ed.) Advances in computer methods for systematic biology: artificial intelligence, databases, computer vision. The Johns Hopkins University Press : Baltimore, Maryland

Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A. & Zurcher, E.J. (1993 onwards). User’s guide to the DELTA system: a general system for processing taxonomic descriptions. 4th edition. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A. & Zurcher, E.J. (1993). Preliminary suggestions for new features for the DELTA system. DELTA Newsletter 9: 2–13

Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A. & Zurcher, E.J. (1995 onwards). User’s guide to Intkey: a program for interactive identification and information retrieval. 1st edition. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Dallwitz, M.J., Paine, T.A. & Zurcher, E.J. (1999 onwards). User’s Guide to the DELTA Editor. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Gouda, E.J. (1996 onwards). Taxasoft DELTA programs. http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/taxasoft/

Paine, T.A. (1994). INTKEY for Windows. DELTA Newsletter 10: 5–6

Partridge, T.R., Dallwitz, M.J. & Watson, L. (1993 onwards). A primer for the DELTA system. 3rd edition. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/

Valdecasas, A.G.-, Elvira, J.R., Becerra, J.M. & Bello, E. (1990). Dallwitz’s DELTA: CONFOR, KEY, DIST, TRANSNTE. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales : Madrid. [Spanish User’s Guide for the DELTA System]

Watson, L., Dallwitz, M.J., Gibbs, A.J. & Pankhurst, R.J. (1988). Automated taxonomic descriptions. Pp. 292–304 in Hawksworth, D.L. (ed.) Prospects in Systematics. Clarendon Press : Oxford