Syncroscopy reports that its Auto-Montage software is being used at a major US entomology centre to image different species of hymenoptera as part of the 'Assembling the Tree of Life' programme
Researchers in the Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky are using Auto-Montage to generate images of braconid wasps belonging to the order hymenoptera.
This is part of a large collaborative project to produce a definitive Hymenoptera classification and images produced from this programme are being archived in MorphBank, an online image repository for biological images, allowing future researchers to benefit from this imaging effort.
Additionally, researchers at the University of Kentucky, in collaboration with the University of Illinois, are using Auto-Montage to create identification keys to economically important Cotesia species.
Katja Seltmann, a laboratory technician at the University of Kentucky stated: "The braconidae are a very species rich group of wasps with an estimated more than 50,000 species world-wide, so it is important to have a method of generating image vouchers for the DNA sequences used in creating that classification and this process needs to be both precise and rapid.
"Obtaining images of whole insects with one picture is difficult because some areas are out of focus.
"We used to produce in-focus images for publications by manually pasting single frames together, or by dissecting areas such as the wing to get a flat image - but this was time consuming.
"Since we began using Auto-Montage, we can now quickly produce accurate, detailed images of a whole specimen.
"Using an image or series of images makes it easy for others to identify an insect when a specimen may not be available, and this image information may also be useful later in the production of keys to identify beneficial hymenopterans," continued Seltmann.
Jason Dempsey, Syncroscopy's product specialist, said: "'Assembling the Tree of Life is a very important programme and we are pleased that Auto-Montage is helping to accelerate the pace of research in such a major project.
"The choice of Auto-Montage shows the confidence entomologists on this project have in Auto-Montage's ability to produce accurate insect images because some of these images will be used as voucher species standards throughout the world."
