March 21, 2023
If you are a frequent user of our sites, you may have noticed some downtime recently. We have now restored, at minimum, the keys and fact sheets for every tool; many tools have been completely restored. However, many URLs have changed, so you may experience problems reaching some sites with old bookmarks. Please visit the ITP products page to find the latest links...
November 18, 2021
ITP and Canadian collaborators held two imaging webinars in 2021. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the International Seed Morphology Association, with help from ITP scientists, hosted "Imaging seeds [...]
December 15, 2020
One of ITP's scientists was featured in a WIRED article from August about the Asian Giant Hornet (AGH), Vespa mandarinia. Todd Gilligan, who runs ITP’s Molecular Laboratory, is one of many people in APHIS who are [...]
November 5, 2019
Two ITP cooperators conducted an insect identification workshop in Palmer, Alaska in early October for 16 regulatory and survey biologists from across the state. The workshop focused on identifying moths [...]
December 20, 2018
Seed Identification Guide (SIG), is a newly released guide to the morphology of weed seeds of importance to Canada, available in both French and English. SIG features an illustrated interactive Lucid key [...]
December 11, 2018
On October 19, 2018, USDA officially announced the eradication of pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), a devastating pest of cotton crops that first invaded the U.S. over 100 years ago. The first two infestations, Texas in 1917 and Louisiana in 1919, were quickly eliminated. In the 1930s, the pest again invaded the Rio Grande Valley, but this time it proved [...]
February 28, 2018
USDA APHIS PPQ has a variety of pest tracking databases that help facilitate data-driven
decisions for plant health safeguarding. PestLens
is an early-warning system that supports PPQ by collecting and disseminating new information
on exotic plant pests, diseases, and weeds via weekly email notifications. PestLens also
serves as a plant protection [...]
July 10, 2017
The Acarology Summer Program has been held at Ohio
State University (OSU) for the last 66 years, making it the longest running program for training in identification of
mites and ticks in the world. The 2017 session was held from June 19 through July 7, and it included three workshops.
Introductory Acarology served either as a stand-alone course or [...]
May 25, 2017
USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) collaborates with many partners, cooperators, and stakeholders to stay on the forefront of plant health. PPQ develops new scientific plant protection methods and enhancements that help safeguard our nation’s agricultural and natural resources and facilitate safe trade of agricultural goods. PPQ [...]
February 23, 2017
ITP’s identification tools are a significant undertaking for the taxonomic expert tool authors. Tool development often takes multiple years, and tools have many pieces to them. To help facilitate timely delivery and useful products for PPQ, ITP offers each tool author team [...]
