Best practice in identifying with FunKey
Introduction
Before using this 'best practice' guide, make sure you are familiar with the basic functions of FunKey as set out in How to Use FunKey.
This is a short 'best practice' guide to allow you to make the most of the advantages and flexibility of FunKey and of the Lucid software under which the interactive key runs. Of course, no two identifications will be the same, and you will need to be flexible in your approach. However, taking note of the suggestions below may help, especially if you are new to Lucid or other interactive keys.
This section is especially important if you are familiar with using printed identification keys in books, but are new to interactive keys. An interactive key like FunKey works in some ways like a printed key but in other ways is quite different. Lucid keys are a type of interactive multi-access key (also called a random-access key). While the questions (couplets) of a printed key need to be answered in a fixed order, in Lucid you can address any character at any time. One of the big advantages of this is that you need not get 'stuck' by being faced with a character that you cannot determine – if this happens, simply find one that you can. It is important to use this feature, and not to dwell overlong on a character that is difficult to resolve.
This raises another important advantage of a random-access key. There is no need to have information on all characters of your material to be able to identify it using the FunKey interactive key. Of course, the more characters that you have information on, the more likely you are to be able to identify material quickly and accurately. Differentiation of many agaric genera does rely on microcharacters, and the combination of macro- and microcharacters offers the best chance of successful identification. However, a simple set of macrocharacters will often enable identification of material to genus.
You will usually find it useful to proceed with an identification using the following steps.
1. Become familiar with the material you wish to identify
Briefly reviewing the charactersistics of your material before you start will make it easier as you proceed through the identification. As you become increasingly familiar with agarics you will come to know many of the characters, and you will know where to find them in the key. There is an Introduction to the characters that will be useful for identification. Remember to set up a spore print as soon as you collect material, so that this important character is available for identification. Fresh material in good condition, with several fruit bodies in various stages of development, is always easier to identify that a single very young or very old fruit-body.
2. Note any characters that are obvious or distinctive
Characters are listed in a standard order with macrocharacters followed by characters related to habitat, ecology and distribution, and then microcharacters. However, you do do not have to work your way down the list sequentially, but instead you should browse the list of Features Available and first select any characters that are obvious on your specimen, such as the presence of an annulus. You should particularly look out for unusual or distinctive characters. Choosing these may quickly reduce Entities Remaining to a short list. Distinctive macroscopic characters include the presence of a volva, a viscid or glutinous pileus surface, or bright colours to the pileus or lamellae such as red, orange, green or purple. Distinctive microscopic characters include spores with ornamentation, spores that are amyloid in Melzer’s Reagent, and lack of clamp connections.
3. Choose an appropriate character subset
FunKey divides its characters into subsets: Macrocharacters and Microcharacters. Macrocharacters can be observed with the naked eye or a hand lens, but microcharacters require a compound microscope. You can ask Lucid to restrict the characters to a specific subset or combination of subsets (such as Macrocharacters). Choosing an appropriate subset can make Features Available easier to scan, and prevent it being cluttered with characters that you cannot determine. The Fast All Characters subset is a list of the most discriminatory characters, as utilised in the FunKey Super Session. Note that by default at start up, Lucid displays 99 of the 115 available characters in Features Available. The remaining 16 characters appear after certain choices of character states are made (such as Cheilocystidia shape appearing once Cheilocystidia are chosen as present).
4. When you have addressed all the obvious characters, ask Lucid to suggest the best remaining character
The Best menu option will cause Lucid to assess which of the remaining characters will best reduce the list in Entities Remaining. Using one or other of these Best characters gives you the most efficient next step. You do not have to use the first character suggested by Best, you can step to the next best character until you find one you are comfortable using.
5. Always skip a character that you are unsure about
The easiest way to go astray with an identification is to guess at a character that you are unsure about, either because you don’t understand the character or because the it not clear on the specimen. One of the great advantages of an interactive key is the ability to skip characters – use this feature. Also, become familiar with the fact sheets that are provided to help you understand characters and character states.
6. When selecting states, always choose multiple states if you are uncertain of the correct choice
Lucid allows you to choose multiple states from one character. These states will be connected with an or link, and Lucid will search for all taxa with state A or state B. If you are unsure which of two or more states your specimen has, then select all the states that you think might apply. That way, you can be sure that your target species will remain in Entities Remaining. Note, however, that choosing all the states of a character is equivalent to not choosing the character at all, since no taxa would be removed from Entities Remaining.
7. If you end up with no taxa remaining, review your chosen character states and delete any that you are dubious about, or adjust the Sorting Mode
An empty Features Available list means that no taxon in FunKey matches the selection of character states that you have made. This may be because we have made an error in coding the data or you have found a genus not included in the key (either new, or as yet unrecorded from Australia). In addition, your material may belong to an undescribed species that has character states that are different to those currently known for the genus. It is estimated that only about half the species of Australian agarics are formally named. Therefore, it is not unexpected that undescribed species will be collected, which may fit most but not all of the character states of a particular genus (such as by having slightly larger spores than are currently known for the genus).
Despite the possibility of keying out novel genera or species, if there are no Entities Remaining it is most likely that you have made a mistake in your selection of one or more characters. If you are dubious about any of your choices try deleting the states that you are unsure about or adding other possible states of the same character to see what the effect is. One or more taxa may move back into Entities Remaining. In difficult cases, you may need to ‘play’ with the key, adding or deleting character states progressively to try and find the best matching taxon. In addition, setting the Sorting Mode to a Ranked Sort rather than a Filtered Sort will not eliminate taxa, but all taxa are listed in Entities Remaining with the percentage match against the character states chosen, with genera ranked by the percentage. The taxon at the top of the list is the best fit, but it may not be a 100% match. If there is one taxon at the top of the list, with say a 95% match, and the next best matches are no higher than 85%, then the taxon at the top of the list is a good candidate for the correct identification.
As this is the first release of FunKey the possibility exists that some of the data are incorrect. Therefore, feedback to the compilers of this key will be appreciated where data errors are suspected.
8. Do not assume that you will end up with a single taxon remaining
Some taxa are very hard to differentiate except by using difficult or obscure characters. Even after you have addressed all possible characters, you may still have a shortlist of taxa remaining instead of just one. You are still much closer to an identifiction that you otherwise would have been, and you may be able to narrow your list further by consulting the descriptions and images in the taxon fact sheets for each taxon remaining.
9. Once you have a potential target taxon (or small group of taxa), check the associated information to see if it matches
Getting the name of a taxon from FunKey is not the end of an identification. You may have made errors, or have a genus that is not in the key, or an undescribed species that exceeds known variation in its genus. In all these cases, the key may have provided you with the wrong name. Always check the taxon fact sheet for the taxon or taxa remaining, where you can find descriptions and images. It is important to note that the images of species in FunKey illustrate a selection of the species in a particular genus, and you may not find an exact match for your material as far as a species identification. The literature listed on each taxon fact sheet contains further descriptions and illustrations for you to compare against your material.