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Using Adobe Illustrator the drawing of setae or spines is the most time‐consuming part of a digital drawing. These short step‐by‐step instructions explain how setae are drawn and stored as brushes. The set up of libraries of seta can be speeded up additionally with macros. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The most time-consuming part of a taxonomic description is making the illustrations. This contribution shows how to save time by omitting the pencil drawings of arthropod appendages and replacing them by stacks of microphotographs. These are imported into a drawing software package on a computer in order to make a publication-ready line drawing, a technique described in detail in Coleman (2003). The photographic method requires a special treatment of the appendages which is also shown.

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An introduction to the software package DELTA (DEscription Language for TAxonomy) is given. Th e contribution consists of step by step instructions into the DELTA Editor and the interactive identifi cation program Intkey. It describes how to record taxonomic character information in a database and maintain these data. Standard output functions are simplifi ed in a new starter database. All used commands are commented and it is marked where changes in the command fi les are required. Th e paper explains how to generate text descriptions, interactive identifi cation tools, and how to make keys and species diagnoses.