[log in to unmask] wrote:
<snip>

> If you are computerised you can put the slide onto a scanner and enlarge the
> wings on screen or print out. Somebody is working on a computer program to do
> the calculations automatically.  You can download existing software from
> BIBBA.
>
> This method is used to recognise ligustica and distinguish it from carnica or
> mellifera and to detect hybrids.

I hate to be a "spoil-sport" about this, but several people are describing the
European-developed morphometrics methods, using a few of the 25-characters in
USDAID. The Baton Rouge BeeLab and a contractor spent probably 10 years refining
Howell Daly's method for dealing with the specific problem of separating AHB and
EHB, using thousands of 10-bee samples. If you will seek out and read the
publications on this computer-aided method, you will begin to appreciate the
statistical weightings given to the various characters, leading to the eventual
separation of the two groups. I am aware that Dr. Ruttner and others have, in the
past, measured bees using up to 50 characters, but many of these characters were
not significant in helping separate the target bee lines. The USDAID program was
originally only available to regulatory and identification organizations, but I
don't know why Baton Rouge would not give copies to the public. The equipment
might be a problem, as the microprojector used cost (in 1988) $400., digitizing
easel is about $400., and the two flat-field Zeiss Planar lenses cost a total of
$1500. Scans and screen measurements were considered, but are just not accurate
or precise enough. After calibrating, the data is input with a digitizing puck,
and the program encodes the data in a form which cannot be changed. I am not
trying to be argumentative, but it seems that most people are not aware of the
years of work and expertise which Professor Daly of UC-Berkeley and the Baton
Rouge USDA lab put into the development of this program, choosing instead to rely
on anecdote and rumor. These are honorable people, with no agendas other than
accurate answers to a very complicated identification.