LepIntercept was developed under a cooperative agreement between the authors, Colorado State University (CSU), and the USDA-APHIS-PPQ-S&T - Identification Technology Program (ITP). Funding was provided by Section 10201 of the 2008 Farm Bill.
The authors would like to thank USDA-APHIS-PPQ-S&T - ITP, USDA-APHIS-PPQ - National Identification Services (NIS), and Colorado State University for supporting the development of LepIntercept. This work would not have been possible without the help of numerous individuals, which we attempt to list on this page. The efforts of everyone listed here are greatly appreciated, and we apologize in advance if anyone who contributed to this project was omitted.
Terrence Walters (S&T - ITP, Fort Collins) supervised the project, allowed access to ITP's Visionary Digital imaging system, and provided logistical and technical support. Joe Cavey (USDA-APHIS-PPQ - National Identification Services) provided resources needed to maintain and grow the PPQ Lepidoptera insect and book collections that directly resulted in completion of this project. Facilities at the USFS in Delaware, Ohio for S. Passoa were provided by Jim Slavicek. Facilities at USDA-S&T in Fort Collins, Colorado for T. Gilligan were provided by Richard Zink.
James Young provided extensive comments on fact sheets, keys, and consulted on numerous issues related to larval identification and identification records. He literally made sure nothing fell through the cracks and was a champion every time there was a chance to do something that benefited identifiers or this project.
The following persons and institutions provided loans or donations of larvaelarva:
the stages between the egg and pupa of those insects having complete metamorphosis
for morphological study: John Brown, Michael Pogue, and Alma Solis, USDA-ARS - Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Smithsonian, Washington D.C.; Estuardo Catalan, CENGICANA (Guatemalan Sugarcane Research and Training Center), Escuintla, Guatemala; Marianne Horak, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra; Norman Johnson and Luciana Musetti, Charles A. Triplehorn Insect Collection, The Ohio State University; Ricardo Antonio Polanczyk, Professor Assistente Doutor em Entomologia, UNESP Jaboticabal, Brazil; Marja van der Straten, Plant Protection Service, Wageningen, Netherlands; May Berenbaum and Terry Harrison, University of Illinois; David Wagner, University of Connecticut; Thomas Giles, USDA-PPQ, Nogales; B. Christian Schmidt, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa.
Ella Gilligan (Loveland, Colorado) provided assistance with initial web page construction and tab functionality.
Michael Pogue and the following USDA-APHIS-PPQ Entomologists/Identifiers provided very helpful reviews of a beta version of this website and associated keys: Lenis Fernando, Miami, Florida; Allan Smith-Pardo, S. San Francisco, California; James Young, Baltimore, Maryland; and Stephen Young, Blaine, Washington.
Alma Solis, Michael Pogue, and John Brown (USDA-ARS-SEL) allowed access to their unpublished identification aids, keys, manuscripts, and provided taxonomic support on pyraloids, noctuoids, and tortricids, respectively.
Equipment provided by Joel Aronoff and Sue Ellis (USDA - Remote Pest Identification Program) was helpful in examining specimens used in this study. Peter Touhey (USDA - NIS) provided access to interception records in PestID. Amanda Redford (S&T - ITP) assisted with technical support for the Lucid Key. Jim Hayden (FSCA, McGuire Center) copied literature at a last minute request and assisted with pyraloid taxonomy.
George Godfrey's (Athens, Illinois) gift of his noctuid reprint collection greatly helped the reference section of this work. Equally important was Charles Triplehorn's (The Ohio State University) reprint donations from his collection. Sadly, a few of S. Passoa's undergraduate and graduate advisors who deserve thanks are not here to see this product. The late George Eickwort (Cornell University), Ellis MacLeod (University of Illinois), and Dale Habeck (University of Florida) allowed access to larval collections at their institutions. This work would have been impossible without notes taken at these collections or knowledge gained from them on morphology.
The following USDA-APHIS-PPQ Identifiers answered questions and contributed images or job aids to study and/or reference specimens that assisted greatly with this project: G. Bartman, E. Bess, J. Botz, J. Brambila, C. Brodel, J. Brusch, N. Cottrell, T. Dobbs, R. Dones, J. Dooley, J Dorshorst, R. Elliott, G. Evans, C. Gaona, P. Haslem, S.-H. Hung, R. Ito, M. Kharboutli, J. Korecki, D. Lee, L. Fernando, P. Johnson, B. Lindsey, S. Marmura, P. Marquez, N. Matteson, D. McCoy, E. McDonald, K. Metz, N. Nieves, C. O'Donnell, C. Olsen, J. Orr, R. Pingel, H. Rasmussen, S. Romero, L. Saez, M. Segall, E. Serrano, T. Skarlinsky, A. Smith-Pardo, W. Tang, R. Tracy, T. Watanabe, J. Weaver, E. White, W. Winnie, J. Young, S. Young, J. Zablotny, and J. Zhang.
Special thanks to M. Cazier Mosley, M. Kharboutli, H. Nadel, V. Mastro, and D. Lance for support of the Diatraea rearing project at the Otis Methods lab.
When the Weisman key update was submitted to a Lepidoptera-oriented journal in the 1990's by S. Passoa, it was refused with the reasoning that "if APHIS won't publish it, that is a strike against the quality of the work." If that was a strike, then it seems that Terrence Walters and the Identification Technology Program have hit a home run over the wall and out of the park with this project. We appreciate and never take this support for granted.
In 2025, LepIntercept was migrated to Fact Sheet Manager 3, ITP's content-management system, developed and maintained by Center for Integrated Pest Management, North Carolina State University.
Robin Boudwin, Center for Integrated Pest Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Ashley Gottlieb, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Melissa Islam, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
For questions about access or functionality, please contact ITP (itp@usda.gov).