The correct identification of insect pests and their natural enemies is critical for developing sound and sustainable pest management strategies: this is particularly so for rice. In the 1960’s, a comprehensive rice insect pest and natural enemy collection was established at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, with the aim of helping those in national rice research programs to identify rice arthropods. A similar project was begun in West Africa in 1990, establishing a rice insect and natural enemy collection at WARDA (West African Rice Development Association), which subsequently became AfricaRice. Associated with both of these collections, dichotomous keys were developed and published in the following books on rice arthropods:
- Biology and Management of Rice Insects, edited by E. A. Heinrichs (1994) and published by IRRI, and
- Rice Feeding Insects and Selected Natural Enemies in West Africa, authored by E. A. Heinrichs and Alberto Barrion (2002).
The printed versions of both books have been out-of-print for several years. Now, a recent upgrade of the Lucid software program has made it possible to convert these paper-based, dichotomous keys to interactive pathway keys, making them freely available for access via the Internet, courtesy of IAPPS.
The IRRI key, published in 1994, was a single dichotomous key to 862 insect and spider species found in Asian rice fields. It has now been converted to a series of keys to the different orders. The West African, English language keys have subsequently been converted by Dr Souleymane Nacro (IAPPS West/Central Africa Region Board member) to a French language version. Google Translate was initially used to convert the key data to French, then checked and edited by Dr Nacro, using French technical terms where appropriate. Both English and French language versions of the West African keys can be accessed below.
Note: Since the IRRI key now includes a large number of images of important insect pests and natural enemies. E.A. Heinrichs ([email protected]) would appreciate any good resolution images that colleagues would be willing to submit for adding to the key – with due acknowledgement.
