Chris-
There is a test for Africanized Bees, called FABIS, and based on wing
length.
The USDA page has been moved, but I found a report on the study here:
http://beesource.com/point-of-view/africanized-honey-bees/fabis-manual-fast-africanized-bee-identification-system/

Jennifer Berry
On Friday, September 9, 2016, <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> That's redundant. Morphometrics _is_ measuring. It literally means "shape
> and size measuring."
>
> Morphometrics as a tool isn't entirely redundant as it can be used at
> almost no expense by amateur beekeepers to give a reasonably accurate
> assessment of racial characteristics of their bees.  Its is not, of course
> as accurate as genetic analysis but the tools to do that are not readily
> available.
>
> Morphometrics was the tool used to identify Apis mellifera mellifera, the
> northern European bee, and distinguish it from Am ligustica, carnica and
> all the rest.  The simplest way was to put wing veins on a glass slide,
> project the image onto a screen and measure lengths and angles, plot on a
> graph and check the book. Nowadays a computer can do it for you if you have
> an up to date scanner (which I don't!).
>
> I wonder whether there are diagrams and measurements for the Africanised
> bees, Am scutellata?  This would enable beekeepers in America to decide
> whether their bees are stroppy because of their race rather than
> weather/disturbance etc.
>
> Chris
>
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