Digital key is patentable, commercial product. It is primarily meant to be used by students, citizen groups, and professionals. It will be useful for those who want to implement a IPM program as well as those who are just interested in what little creatures live in our habitats. This key contains taxa lists, general keys, and range maps for the different types of neuropteran insects. This key is not a traditional dichotomous key, a more user friendly key that takes advantages of the computer to provide a near limitless amount of illustrations and information. This kind of keys are now available in Western World for identification of region specific insect groups but no such keys are available in India. This attempt is on “Development of digital key for Neuroptera associated with Aphids of West Bengal” because the order Neuroptera of Insecta comprises of the ant lions, dusty wings, lacewings, owl flies and the snake flies, are predaceous on many insects like aphids, mites and coccids. Aphids are the major plant pests and are known as the largest group involved in virus transmission. In India, about 636 aphid species are known to infect 1200 plant. The major concern of this century is to minimize pest damage for obtaining actual crop production, preferably by eco-friendly safer means. We have worked on aphidophagous Neuroptera as a part of IPM for last 23 years, thus we choose this group as model for development of beta digital key. Later this algorithm can be used for development of keys for other insects of WEST BENGAL.
