Anatomical Atlas of Flies

The Anatomical Atlas of Flies can be used as a teaching aid or in conjunction with any fly key to find out the name of fly parts.1

Description

The Anatomical Atlas of Flies can be used as a standalone resource to accompany any fly key or as an aid for teaching fly anatomy. The atlas works both ways: users can either click on a part to discover its name, or click on a name to discover the location and shape of a part. Common synonyms for anatomical terms are available from the information button that appears when terms and structures are highlighted.

The atlas relies on high resolution digital images of flies, and allows the user to change magnifications to see fine detail. The Atlas uses examples from the 4 major fly groups, representing different anatomical expressions of flyness. The user can learn fly anatomy by examining all the different parts of a single fly or highlight a particular structure and navigate between flies. In this way the user can recognize how the structure changes shape and form across this vast taxonomic spectrum. This is a graphical representation of transformational homology.

The Anatomical Atlas was created by CSIRO Entomology to accompany an ABRS-funded identification key to fly families of Australia and US NSF-funded research into the evolutionary history of flies.

Produced by Anne Hastings, David Yeates and Joanna Hamilton (CSIRO Entomology).

The 'Atlas' was made with Macromedia Flash, Adobe Photoshop and a high resolution digital camera mounted on a stereo microscope.2

Function

• Visualisation tools
  • Images
• Taxonomy
• User interface
  • Personal
  • Visual presentation

Why use this tool?

• To investigate the anatomy of the fly
• To accompany any fly key

Who will use this tool?

• Data creation
  • Experts - taxonomy
• Data users
  • Expert
  • Interest groups
  • General public

How will the tool be used?

• Online tool requires broadband
• User input is required

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• User’s machine

When could this tool be used?

• At the time of a user request
• As a post process, after data is with the user

Availability

• Anatomical Atlas of Flies: http://www.ento.csiro.au/biology/fly/fly.html
• CSIRO information sheet: http://www.csiro.au/resources/ps252.html
• Also available with the Lucid key on CD - On The Fly: the interactive atlas and key to Australian fly families- see http://www.csiro.au/resources/ps236.html
• Contact: David Yeates David.Yeates@csiro.au,
• Cost: free
• Copyright CSIRO 2004 http://www.csiro.au/org/CopyrightNotice.html

Comments