Today we took a break from writing our literature review to check out some of the wasps we are studying. They are pretty small, so we had to use a microscope that magnified the wasp so we could see it better. All the wasps have labels on them that tell us where, when and by whom the wasp was collected. Sometimes there are more labels recording how the wasp was collected (found on a type of plant, or caught in a trap), whether it is a male or a female, and what species it is.
To work out what the wasps are, we are using a key. There are different sorts of keys, but we are using a dichotomous key, where each step asks you a question for which there are two possible answers.
For example, if you wanted to build a key to tell you what each of the four objects below were called (if you had never seem them before) it might look something like this:
For example, if you wanted to build a key to tell you what each of the four objects below were called (if you had never seem them before) it might look something like this:
1. The object has eyes (go to 2.)
The object doesn't have eyes (go to 3.)
2. The object is yellow (Mustard the dinosaur)
The object is orange and purple (A spider)
3. The object is soft (a beanie)
The object is hard (bamboo plant in red holder)
Each of these steps is called a 'character' and in a dichotomous key, each character can have two states. In step one, the character is eyes. The first state is having eyes, whilst the second state is not having eyes.
We are following dichotomous keys like this for the wasps - trying to work out what they are (even though these ones have labels on them) so that when we start finding new wasps we are used to using the key and can identify them easily.
The object doesn't have eyes (go to 3.)
2. The object is yellow (Mustard the dinosaur)
The object is orange and purple (A spider)
3. The object is soft (a beanie)
The object is hard (bamboo plant in red holder)
Each of these steps is called a 'character' and in a dichotomous key, each character can have two states. In step one, the character is eyes. The first state is having eyes, whilst the second state is not having eyes.
We are following dichotomous keys like this for the wasps - trying to work out what they are (even though these ones have labels on them) so that when we start finding new wasps we are used to using the key and can identify them easily.
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