Western Plant Diagnostic Network 1 First Detector News A Quarterly Pest Update for WPDN First Detectors Winter 2014 edition, volume 7, number 1 P In this Issue Dear First Detectors, The Winter 2014 newsletter is all about Page 1: Editor’s Note resources. Where does one find information and identification help for an insect pest, a plant disease, or a Pages 2 - 3: Lucid keys for “Bug Busting” snail or slug? The first article by Greg Koob introduces the concept of Lucid keys , a user friendly software program for Page 4: 100th anniversary of identification of insect pests, plant pathogens, and slugs and Cooperative Extension snails. Lucid identification keys are currently being used by a wide range of end-users, from high school and university Page 5: NPDN & WPDN Resources students to taxonomists, quarantine identifiers, biodiversity scientists and conservation managers. The Lucid keys are a wonderful replacement of the dichotomous keys where the Page 6: Western IPM sequence and structure of identification steps is fixed by the Page 7: CAPS Pest Tracker author of the key. At each point in the decision process, multiple alternatives are offered, each leading to a result or Page 8: What is This Bug? a further choice. Pages 9 – 10: Pest Updates If one finds a suspect pest, where does one send or bring it? The next series of articles has sources of information about Contact us at the WPDN Regional the state and territorial departments of agriculture, the Center at UC Davis: nearest Cooperative Extension office, and the many Phone: 530 754 2255 resources offered on the NPDN and WPDN websites. Email: [email protected] Web: https://wpdn.org Please find the NPDN family of newsletters at: Editor: Richard W. Hoenisch @Copyright Regents of the University of California Newsletters All Rights Reserved Western Plant Diagnostic Network News 2 USDA-APHIS Web-Based Tools for “Bug Busting” by Gregory A. Koob, State Biologist, USDA-NRCS - Pacific Islands Area Insect and other invertebrate pests can be hard to identify. They can be a big problem for farmers or any other land manager. Sure, you can direct folks to an extension agent but USDA-APHIS has some nice web-based keys and other tools available if someone wants to try to identify a problem on their own. Created by USDA-APHIS’ Identification Technology Program (ITP), ID Tools helps to quickly identify pests, including insects, diseases, harmful weeds, and more, through an efficient, online database system. ID Tools currently includes more than 30 websites covering a vast array of pests and pests associated with specific commodities. ITP’s ID Tools web site receives about 12,000 visitors a month and is not only for experts. Using identification key software called “Lucid,” users select a specimen’s distinguishing characteristics (e.g., color, shape, size) with the aid of illustrations and photographs; they don’t need to know the scientific terms for the specimen’s anatomy. Each characteristic chosen can eliminate up to hundreds of possibilities and quickly narrows the search to the exact species. Users will find Lucid keys in the majority of the tools. For example, if you wanted to use ID Tools to identify a terrestrial mollusc (think slugs and snails) that you believe is a pest species, you would first choose whether the creature has a shell. This choice immediately narrows down the possibilities, making the system vastly more efficient than a text version. Some of the tools are specific to Mainland issues and crops, but most have some applicability in the Pacific Islands area. There is even one dedicated to identifying invasive ants in the Pacific Islands (PIA key – Pacific Invasive Ant Key). If you feel that identifying characteristics is not your style, ID Tools offers users a wonderful diversity of other media to support the identification process. Many of the tools contain an image gallery, glossary, visual dictionary, and species fact sheets with descriptions and diagnostic images. A screen shot of the ID Tools home page is located at http://www.idtools.org/ Try out ID Tools by clicking this link to explore ITP’s many digital pest identification pest products. A Hawaii-centric set of tools can be found at Starr Environmental under “Free Resources”. This web page includes photo galleries of plants, birds, and insects of Hawaii, identification help for insects and plants (native and nonnative) found in Hawaii and several other identification guides. Article content is the sole responsibility of the author. For more information about this article, contact Gregory A. Koob, email: [email protected] . http://www.idtools.org/ Once again! This is an excellent site and also Human Impacts Pollen Database just in time for allergy season Western Plant Diagnostic Network News Image courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons 3 Here are three examples from the many sites found on the Lucid site. The Lucid key philosophy is to make identification easy and straight forward. The keys are designed for the diagnostician, as well as for the grower, horticulturalist, PCA, and hobbyist. LepIntercept Just released! – LepIntercept is one of the largest and most economically important orders of plant eating insects. Thousands of Lepidoptera are considered pests, and each year large numbers of these species are intercepted at U.S. ports of entry as larvae. LepIntercept is a comprehensive resource for identifying intercepted Lepidoptera larvae. Citrus ID, Edition 2 Citrus Diseases Citrus Pests Visit the Resource Citrus Resource, a commodity-based identification resource, was created to provide growers, the industry, and those associated with citrus pest and disease detection an easily accessible site to assist with their identification needs. Terrestrial Mollusc Tool TerrestrialTerrestrial MolluscMollusc ToolTool was was specifically specifically designed designed to to assist assist in in the the identification identification of of adult adult terrestrial terrestrial slugs and snails of agricultural importance. The tool also includes species of quarantine significance as slugs and snails of agricultural importance. The tool also includes species of quarantine significance wellas well as invasive as invasive and andcontaminant contaminant mollusc mollusc species species commonly commonly intercepted intercepted at U.S. at U.S.ports ports of entry. of entry. Western Plant Diagnostic Network News 4 100th Anniversary of Cooperative Extension May 2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Smith-Lever Act, legislation that created Cooperative Extension, a nationwide system of community- based education, established as part of each state’s land grant university. Cooperative Extension was started to help farmers, homemakers, and youth use the latest university research to improve their lives. At first geared towards strengthening rural areas, Cooperative Extension became integral to urban and suburban communities as well. A century later, Cooperative Extension continues to provide a vital link between public universities and communities. Today, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) partners with more than 100 land-grant universities in pursuit of openness, accessibility and service through Cooperative Extension. NIFA supports both the universities and local offices of the Cooperative Extension System to bring science direct to the regional and county level. The successes of Extension in the past 100 years lay the groundwork for another 100 years of extending knowledge and changing lives through its many current programs. The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 is a United States federal law that established a system of cooperative extension services, connected to the land-grant universities, in order to inform people about current developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy/government, leadership, 4-H, the Master Gardener program, economic devel opment, coastal issues (National Sea Grant College Program), and many other related subjects. It helped farmers learn new agricultural techniques by the introduction of home instruction. Here are the WPDN region sites for CE: University of Alaska Cooperative Extension American Samoa Community College Arizona Cooperative Extension University of California Cooperative Extension University of Guam Cooperative Extension University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service University of Idaho Extension University of Nevada Cooperative Extension New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service Oregon State University Cooperative Extension Utah State University Extension Washington State University Extension Western Plant Diagnostic Network News 5 NPDN and WPDN Resources The Western Plant Diagnostic Network http://www.wpdn.org/ is based at the University of California at Davis. On the webpage, one can access pest alerts and Power Point presentations in English and Spanish without needing a password. Please use these resources for invasives education with your respective groups and organizations. o FD Training Docs . Español The five o Pest Alerts regions of . Español the NPDN o Presentations . Español The specific purpose of the National Plant Diagnostic Network https://www.npdn.org/ is to provide a cohesive, distributed system to quickly detect and identify pests and pathogens of concern. NPDN laboratories immediately report their findings to appropriate responders and decision makers. To accomplish this mission, the NPDN has invested in diagnostic laboratory infrastructure and training, developed an extensive network of first detectors through