Are keys used ONLY to determine species?

Question

explanation please, thanks!

Answer 1

No.  Some keys can be used to identify order, family, genus, etc.  It depends on the organisms.  Insects are usually pretty hard to key out to species, so there are many insect keys that go only to family, sub-family, or genus.  And for insects, this can be pretty specific!

Answer 2

Nope. I remember doing an example in class where we put down the physical traits of people in our class to single them out in a spider key format. Therefore it can be used to identify names, species, or just about anything.