User Guide

The Platform is organized in page format. Each main page is selected by clicking on one of the tabs at the top of the screen. The main data-related pages corresponding to the tabs are;

• Browse Plant and Fruit With Insects
• Adavanced plant search
• Browse Insects Reared from Fruits
• Phylogeny of Plants and Insects

Browsing Plant and Fruits With Insects

When using the "Plant and Fruits With insects page, individual plant species are generated by clicking on that species’ name. A plant data page contains a photo, morphology, description of the plant, expandable photographs, and a map showing the geographical distribution of the plant, as well as its fruiting phenology, the latter determined empirically during this project. A list of insects reared from the fruit is also provided.

Species page for Drypetes gerrardii.

Adavanced plant search

Users select one or more values for each of several character states (e.g. fruit color, leaf type, etc.) by clicking on the appropriate entries. All selections within a character box are “or”, not “and”, selections, making the key inclusive, not exclusive. Say, for example, you have made a collection from a single plant species with compound leaves that are trifoliolate (three leaflets per leaf), and whose fruits include both red and yellow ones. You would select both colors in the Fruit color box. If the fruit from your plant is described in the literature as being yellow only, selecting red in addition to yellow will not eliminate the correct plant from the list generated by your query, because you have included yellow. Additionally, clicking on trifoliolate in the leaf type box will not exclude the correct plant from the results even if it is described in the literature as having 3 or 5 leaflets. Submitting a query will return a list of one or more plant names. Highlighting a plant name from the first plant amomg the query result. Upon double clicking the plant, you can navigate to the detailed page for that plant.

Example of character-state selections using the advanced search page.

Results page generated by the query.

It is not necessary to select a value for each character state. While not selecting a value for one or more character states diminishes the strength of your search, you may very well have entered enough values for other characters to identify your plant or to narrow the possibilities considerably. For example, you may not know whether your plant contains latex. Just leave out that character state.

In the key, we have tried to keep technical terms to a minimum to enable non-specialists to use the key. Thus, for example, when examining the leaf or leaflet edge or margin, the term “with sharp or rounded teeth” includes margins more technically described as “dentate”, “serrate” or “crenate”. Many terms in the key are represented in the illustrated glossaries. Double-clicking on a term will call up the definition and one or more images illustrating it. In putting together the glossary we relied on several sources, particularly The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms (Hickey & King 2000).

Browsing Insects Reared from Fruits

When using the “Browse Insects Reared from Fruit” page, selecting an insect species generates a page with information on that species, including a list of fruit species from which that insect was reared. Clicking on any fruit species in the list will generate the data page for that plant. To return to where you were on the “Browse Insects Reared from Fruit” page, simply click on “Browse Insects Reared from Fruit” on the tab panel at the top of the page.

Browse Insects page with Ceratitis fruit flies selected.

Page with list of Ceratitis species, and information and image for the default species (the first in the alphabetically sorted list).

Phylogeny Based On Molecular Barcodes

In The "Phylogeny" page the phylogentics ree for the plant and insects are shown based on their families. are determined by their barcodes. The labels for the endpoints (terminal taxa) include the species name, followed by the species ID sourced from the local database, and subsequently the NCBI accession. The barcodes used to construct the phylogeny were maturase K for plants and Cytochrome oxidase sub-unit I (COI) for insects. Clicking on each species name provides users with options to access external databases or locally linked morphological information. The phylogeny page includes a LINK TO INSECT-PLANT PHYLOGENY for all Insect barcodes that were retrieved and have an associated plant name, which is included in the labelling

Phylogeny page for Meliaceae plant family. The phylogeny tree shows that certain species display no genetic divergence based on their barcodes, as seen in Margaritaria discoidea.Flueggea virosa exhibits genetic variance among its species, potentially attributed to geographical differences.

Illustrated glossaries of plant terms

An illustrated glossary of botanical terms can be used as a primary teaching tool, or referred to when using the advanced plant search page, showing images of plant. Double-clicking on a term in the key will bring up its definition in the glossary. Photographic images illustrating a term are accessed by clicking on the “images” button to the right of each definition. Some self-evident terms are not illustrated. A general, alphabetically arranged glossary is available as are category-related glossaries (e.g. terms related to leaf margin characteristics, fruit shapes, etc.).

The alphabetically-ordered Glossary page.

The same glossary page with "Subglobose (fruit shape)" selected.