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Visionary Digital Installation at Dr. Laurence Packer's Lab: York Universisty On May 21st 2008 I had the pleasure of installing a new BK+ Imaging System with the crew at the Laurence Packer Lab at York University in Toronto, Canada. Claudia Ratti, Senior Biodiversity technician, took the controls 9:00am on the first day of shooting and never let go. Lighting was her primary concern. With all the possible lighting options afforded by the new BK+ Imaging System, she had a large selection to choose from. Claudia caught on very quickly was producing fine quality images from the outset. This new way of imaging will allow the lab to generate web based taxonomic keys faster and easier than ever before with a degree of consistency and quality previously not possible. Everyone there was eager to learn and it was obvious that they all love what they are do. The overall excitement was fantastic. Dr. Packer runs a wonderful lab with very talented people. For more information on Dr. Laurence Packer and some of the work he is doing check out his website at "http://www.yorku.ca/bugsrus." ( Click on the Barcoding Bee logo at the bottom then click on the bee Family name for the full size image or on the bee Genus name for the zoomified image.) As more images of these amazing bees become available we will post them here. The folks in the lab: Claudia Ratti Short Bio: Biodiversity technician; Main duties include database management; collection management, operation of the Visionary Digital imaging system, web page development of on-line taxonomic keys.. MSc in bee abundance and diversity in blueberry and cranberry agriculture. Contact Claudia Cory Sheffield Short Bio: Post-doctoral fellow; Main interest is plant-pollinator biology; also study bee taxonomy, biology, diversity and conservation. Combine morphological and genetic data to develop user friendly interactive and web-based taxonomic keys. Reference collection data management and construct species pages for bee collection databases. Contact Cory Sheila Colla Short Bio: Ph.D. Candidate; Main interest is bumble bee conservation and ecology for the Eastern North America fauna. Assessing species decline using historical and survey data and aiming to determine causes for these declines. Contact Sheila Jason Gibbs is working on a taxonomic revision of Lasioglossum (Dialictus) in Canada and the Eastern United States. He uses DNA barcodes in combination with morphology to study this very difficult taxonomic group. Contact Jason Sheila Dumesh is a first year Master's student working on a revision of the Mexican bee genus Mexalictus. Her project involves describing new species, generating matrices and phylogenies, and developing a key to all species of the genus. Contact Sheila View their work by clicking here.