Nudikey: An illustrated, interactive identification key to the families of Australian heterobranch sea-slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

Abstract

The Australian heterobranch sea slugs are popular among the public and are also important as potential indicators of environmental change. Despite this, there is no simple key for their identification and, as a result, most attempts at identification are made by comparative reference to books, websites, social-media or through museums and correspondence with taxonomists. At present there is no opportunity for users to self-interact with a key online. Therefore, development of an interactive taxonomic key that allows users to identify a sea slug specimen without any previous taxonomic knowledge fulfills a practical need by providing a valuable identification tool for amateurs and the general public. The objective of NudiKey is to summarise the essential diagnostic characteristics of the epibenthic Australian heterobranch families and, using the freely available Lucid v3.3 software and high quality photographs of living animals, develop a well-illustrated, user-friendly, interactive key.