On Sun, 2 Jul 1995, Jerry J Bromenshenk wrote:
 
 
> Didn't ask the status of his acoustic device.  As I understand, the idea
> is that size of bee affects wing beat frequency.  However, I found out
> years ago and Erik Erickson and others found that European bees vary more
> in size than generally acknowledged.  Erickson found that the foundation
> supplied by various distributors of bee equipment has different cell
> sizes.  I found that bees vary so much that some colonies can squeeze
> through a hole 1/16 of an inch smaller than others.  Thus, Howard's
> device may give false readings - although I have not asked him about this.
>
 
 
The issue of identification of Africanized bees was discussed in an
article appearing in the July 1987, American Bee Journal by H. Allen
Sylvester and Thomas  E. Rinderer titles the "Fast Africanized Bee
Identification System (FABIS) Manual."   The particular distinction they
point out is the hybrid nature of the Africanized bees and that
morphometric variations  within a colony are to be expected.
Their FABIS measurement procedures provide a field test where wing & comb
measurements define Africanized, European, or a "gray area" where samples are
suspicious of being Africanized and would merit lab testing.
 
If the frequencies of the wing beats are a function of size, a
morphometric analysis scheme similar to FABIS should provide an
appropriate field identification system based on wing beat frequencies.
Has there been any activity to generate such a system?
 
John Moyer