PC system protects British bees

An automated bee identification system has been created to help defend native species from foreign invaders.

The technique, which uses a personal computer to analyse the images of 15 different forewings, takes just minutes. It had previously been a laborious, lengthy task involving awkward manual measurements.

Claire Chamaillard, a French engineering masters student at the University of Hull, devised the system to assess wing morphology, which varies by species.