Recently, people working in faunal research have practice to photomontage when identifying a species (in most cases they are not professional taxon experts), and they make a mirror image of one half and copy it to the first half. However they publish this in quality journals. How correct is that? I've been working in traditional taxonomy for more than 30 years, and often a morphological character can only be presented on one side, or there's an anomaly on the other side, that can lead you down the wrong path.
My question is how correct is this position for traditional taxonomy?
Could it be correct as long as it is said ?
Some papers state "photographs untouched" or "images with only minor contrast and brightness adjustment"
Hello George; You might look at the images presented in AntWeb.org. These are excellent photomontage images of ants. They frequently appear in the professional literature. I don't think that they are ever manipulated in the way you describe. I'm not sure why it would be useful to treat images in that way. Why do people take the trouble to do that?
Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
It is not correct to make a mirror image of one half.
The correct position is to have a full image of species from lateral view,or ventral view or dorsal view,but not a mirror image.
So my question :is the quality journal?.
Mauricio Oscar Zamponi Yes it i. It's in pensoft list, "Caucasiana".
I create very detailed digital photo-montage images and often sample part of a photo to improve another section of the image where the resolution needs improving. However, the aim is always to produce an accurate representation based on my knowledge of the subject. Simply working up half the image and then mirroring it would not be acceptable.
After having seen what I think are the figures you are referring to, is that such practice should be discouraged and considered data-manipulation, because there is no clear statement in the Materials and methods that it has been done, and why and how. This should especially be treated seriously when describing new taxa. Also, I think you should publish a note on this matter.
I think that mirroring half of a specimen for research purposes is absolutely wrong. For example it's thought that in different groups of insects asymmetry it's a symptom of stressful conditions. Mirroring half of the subject is not truthful and shows altered data.
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