Hi folks! I’ve been so busy running around in preparation for some upcoming travel that I couldn’t get my episode on Higgins finished in time. I didn’t want to cut that short because tortoises are so cool, and I’m really excited to share some facts about them and their care!
So, instead, I decided to go through my huge folder of science papers relating to bees. I’m going to share some of the ones that most grabbed my attention. You can listen in here, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Quick note: almost every science publication requires a paid subscription to read the full paper. None of that money goes to the author, btw; it’s a total scam. But having papers published is an essential part of academia so there’s little getting around the system.
HOWEVER, there are ways to read these papers for free. If you do a search for the lead author’s name, many will have their papers available for free on their website. You can also email them and kindly request it; they will be happy to send it to you!
Another option is sci-hub.se
Not all papers will be on there but it’s worth a shot and completely free! Go pirates!
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First, one that has really been in the news lately: a vaccine for honeybees!
The CBS news link has a great video of a hive, which is why I chose it. There’s also a good article from the Smithsonian.
So what’s the deal? The vaccine is for inoculation against American Foulbrood. This is a nasty bacterial disease that spreads through spores and is highly infectious. It’s so named because it kills the brood and causes them to devolve into a gross, foul smelling mess. Historically, the only treatment has been antibiotics but these are expensive, hard to source for the average beekeeper, and aren’t always effective. For most of us, a diagnosis of American Foulbrood means having to euthanize the colony and burn all equipment they came into contact with to prevent transmission. It is devastating, and I hope I never encounter it!
Since insects don’t produce antibodies, attempting to create vaccines for them hasn’t really been a promising area of study. But one company, Dalan Animal Health, has been looking into the concept, and had their vaccine recently approved by the USDA.
From the Smithsonian article:
“Beekeepers will mix the vaccine, which contains dead P. larvae bacteria cells, into the food that worker bees eat. Then, when the worker bees secrete their milky royal jelly, the queen will ingest it and the vaccine. From there, the vaccine will make its way to her ovaries, where it will immunize developing larvae.
According to the company, the vaccine is not genetically modified and can be used in organic farming.
Under a conditional license from the USDA, Dalan Animal Health now plans to distribute limited amounts of the vaccine to commercial beekeepers. From there, they hope to offer it for sale throughout the U.S. sometime this year.”
So that’s very exciting! And, if you’re anything like me, all your friends and family have sent you some article about this!
This Reddit post on the subject has some funny comments, which I recommend giving a read: https://www.reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews/comments/11p2ljf/first_vaccine_for_honeybees_could_save_billions/
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In Science (a REALLY big deal publication for scientists!): ‘Social Signal Learning of the waggle dance in honey bees’ by Shihao Dong, Tao Lin, James C. Nieh, and Ken Tan.
From the paper:
“Learning to dance
The honeybee waggle dance has long been recognized as a behavior that communicates information about resource location from a foraging worker to her nest mates. Dong et al. show that this complex dance is in part learned by young bees as they observe more experienced bees (see the Perspective by Chittka and Rossi). Specifically, bees that were not exposed to the dances of their older counterparts displayed more angle and distance errors than those that had a “tutor.” Although experience increased angle and direction accuracy, untutored bees were never able to recover accurate distance coding. Thus, as with birds, humans, and other social learning species, honeybees benefit from observing others of their kind that have experience. —SNV”
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Next up! In the journal of Integrative & Comparative Biology: ‘The Impacts of Early-Life Experience on Bee Phenotypes and Fitness’ by Clare C Rittschoff and Amanda S Denny.
The Abstract from the paper:
“Across diverse animal species, early-life experiences have lifelong impacts on a variety of traits. The scope of these impacts, their implications, and the mechanisms that drive these effects are central research foci for a variety of disciplines in biology, from ecology and evolution to molecular biology and neuroscience. Here we review the role of early-life in shaping adult phenotypes and fitness in bees, emphasizing the possibility that bees are ideal species to investigate the causes and consequences of variation in early-life experience at both individual and population levels. Bee early-life includes the larval and pupal stages, critical time periods during which factors like food availability, maternal care, and temperature set the phenotypic trajectory for an individual's lifetime. We discuss how some common traits impacted by these experiences, including development rate and adult body size, influence fitness at the individual level, with possible ramifications at the population level. Finally, we review ways in which human alterations to the landscape may impact bee populations through early-life effects. This review highlights aspects of bees’ natural history and behavioral ecology that warrant further investigation with the goal of developing a better understanding of the ways in which environmental disturbances threaten these vulnerable species.”
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In Animal Behaviour: ‘Honey bee waggle dances facilitate shorter foraging distances and increased foraging aggregation’ by Kyle Shackleton, Nicholas J Balfour, Hasan Al Toufailia, Emma James, Francis RW Ratnieks. From the University of Sussex in Brighton, England!
From the paper:
“Many social organisms assist their group mates in foraging. The honey bee waggle dance allows nestmates to communicate the locations of rewarding flower patches. This remarkable behaviour can increase colony food collection under certain environmental conditions. However, we know little about how it affects colony foraging distribution in the landscape. Here, we predicted that dance communication influences foraging distances and increases the aggregation of foraging locations. We tested these predictions by manipulating the ability of Apis mellifera colonies situated in a heterogeneous landscape to communicate location information. Following established methodology, six study colonies in observation hives were turned horizontally and exposed to light treatments that produced either oriented or disoriented dancing. After 10–17 days, hives were then turned vertically and allowed to dance under normal conditions. We videoed and decoded dances to compare foraging patterns that had developed during the preceding treatment. This procedure was repeated throughout the foraging season from spring to autumn. Dance decoding revealed that, on average, bees from disoriented colonies recruited for food sources further away than oriented colonies. This effect was consistent throughout the year. Oriented colonies' recruitment was to a smaller area and was more spatially aggregated than that of disoriented colonies. However, experimental treatment did not affect colony weight gain. Our results show that dance communication plays an important role in the spatial distribution of foraging and is potentially beneficial in reducing commuting costs by directing recruits to closer foraging locations. These findings may be particularly relevant in heterogeneous landscapes.
Highlights:
The honey bee waggle dance enables recruitment to smaller foraging areas.
Colonies unable to communicate dance information foraged further from their hives.
The waggle dance is potentially beneficial in reducing commuting costs.
These findings may be particularly relevant in heterogeneous landscapes.”
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Last one! In the journal of Animal Behaviour: ‘Do Bumblebees Play?” by Hiruni Samadi Galpayage Dona, Cwyn Solvi, Amelia Kowalewska, Kaarle Mäkelä, HaDi MaBouDi, and Lars Chittka.
This was a collaborative project between 3 institutions:
Queen Mary University of London, London, England.
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England.
From the paper:
“A variety of animals have been found to interact with and manipulate inanimate objects ‘just for fun’, that is, to play. Most clear examples of object play come from mammals and birds. However, whether insects interact with inanimate objects as a form of play has never been systematically examined. Here, we show that rolling of wooden balls by bumble bees, Bombus terrestris, fulfils behavioural criteria for animal play and is akin to play in other animals. We found that ball rolling (1) did not contribute to immediate survival strategies, (2) was intrinsically rewarding, (3) differed from functional behaviour in form, (4) was repeated but not stereotyped, and (5) was initiated under stress-free conditions. Through the design of the experiment and with the support of behavioural observations, we excluded the possibilities that ball rolling was driven by exploration for food, clutter clearing or mating. Similar to vertebrate play, we also found age and sex differences for ball rolling by bumble bees: younger bees rolled more balls than older bees and male bees rolled individual balls for longer durations than females. We explicitly show that ball rolling is itself a rewarding activity. After being trained to find freely movable balls in one of two differently coloured chambers, bees showed a preference for the colour of the chamber where they had rolled balls. Our results contribute to the question of sentience in insects and lend further support for the existence of positive affective states in these animals.
Highlights:
Ball rolling by bumble bees fulfills animal play criteria.
Ball rolling can act as an unconditioned rewarding stimulus.
Younger bees rolled more balls, with age patterns resembling mammalian juvenile play.
Males rolled balls for longer durations than females.
This is one you might have seen on a few different news networks. Bumble bees are a crowd pleaser and tend to attract a fair amount of attention!
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Speaking of bumbles, before I close up this episode, I’d like to remind folks in North America about Bumble Bee Watch.
From their website:
“Bumble Bee Watch is a collaborative effort to track and conserve North America’s bumble bees. This community science project allows for individuals to:
Upload photos of bumble bees to start a virtual bumble bee collection;
Identify the bumble bees in your photos and have your identifications verified by experts;
Help researchers determine the status and conservation needs of bumble bees;
Help locate rare or endangered populations of bumble bees;
Learn about bumble bees, their ecology, and ongoing conservation efforts; and
Connect with other community scientists.”
To get involved, all you need to do is go to their website and set up an account; it’s a quick and easy process. Then you just go out and look for bumblebees! Snap a pic if you can, and input that with location data. It’s easy to do and is a great help.
This citizen science project is supported by great organisations such as the Xerces Society, Wildlife Preservation Canada, and the London Natural History Museum, among others.
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And that’s what I have for you this week! It was hard to choose just a few articles to share; there is so much awesome research being done on honeybees and native US pollinators right now. If you have any questions, please drop me a line! Anything I can’t answer, I will have my biologist husband look at.
There will be no episodes for two weeks as I will be travelling. When I return, I will have my Russian Tortoise episode all ready to go so prepare to learn all about these fascinating, shelled critters.
Until then, stay safe! And remember, hug your hens, and then wash your hands. Cheers!