WHAT'S NEW
New Ant Species Identified by Harvard University
Using Syncroscopy’s Auto-Montage Software
Syncroscopy is proud to announce that Auto-Montage Pro, its automated system for producing focused images of 3-D specimens, is being used at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. The software is being used as part of a project led by Dr Paul Williams to summarise information on world bumblebees and the images produced can be viewed at: www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/bombus.
Image generated by Auto-Montage Pro of dorsal and posterior aspects of the male genitalia of bombus type-species: mendax
Scientists in the Department of Entomology at the Natural History Museum are using Auto-Montage Pro to generate images of male bumblebee genitalia, by which bumblebee species can be accurately identified. Bees are among the most important pollinators of plants worldwide, and are sensitive to environmental changes, thus providing early warning signs of future problems. Therefore, it is important to identify them correctly, in order to track changes.
Dr Andrew Polaszek, a research scientist at the Natural History Museum explained: “We are using male bee genitalia as an identification method because bumblebee colour patterns can be very similar across species and this makes using gross body morphology as a guide, quite difficult.”
“As bumblebee genitalia are small but not flat, in the past we have had to use scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to produce accurate images of them. However, since installing Auto-Montage Pro we have produced over 400 superb images, which are detailed enough to identify species, without using SEM. This is a major benefit as it has considerably reduced the time and expense of generating precise images and means we have been able to make a good proportion of the Natural History Museum’s Bombus collection available via our web site,” added Dr Polaszek.
Martin Smith, Syncroscopy’s Divisional Manager commented: “To see Auto-Montage Pro being used to publish such high quality images by a world-renowned institute like the Natural History Museum, is very exciting. Their work is a great example of the advances in imaging Auto-Montage Pro can bring to taxonomic studies, and should encourage entomologists everywhere to consider using this exceptional software.”
