In order to best utilize the identification key, your specimen must be cleared and mounted on a microscope slide. You will need a compound microscope to examine the specimen, and a calibrated ocular micrometer or similar device to make measurements of anatomical features. A desktop hand calculator or calculator program running on your computer will help calculate ratios.

This tool has three main panels for selection, shortlisting and displaying the Entities with the chosen features.

The left panel Features Available lists with identification features to choose from.
The lower panel displays features chosen.
The right panel displays the list of Entities with matching features from among the selected features. This list is refreshed each time a new feature is selected/ deselected.

Due to the limitations of the key and the types of features that are used to identify the Entities, this key is presented in a list/best match format. So, rather than "discarding" entities that don't match the chosen features, entities will be listed by how well they match the chosen features.

Feature tree can be expanded by clicking the “+” next to the grouping feature. Feature states are selected by clicking once in the box adjascent to the state name. Clicking the state a second time deselects the state. As feature states are selected, the feature states get reflected in the bottom panel and the Entities with the features selected get reflected in the right panel.

Entities are the Fruit Fly / Stored Grain Pest species. On clicking the Entity, it will lead to a new screen with the respective species page (Fact Sheet). The Fact Sheet displays further details related to the entity with images and other features.