Paffhausen Benjamin H, Petrasch Julian, Greggers Uwe, Duer Aron, Wang Zhengwei, Menzel Simon, Stieber Peter, Haink Karén, Geldenhuys Morgan, Čavojská Jana, Stein Timo A, Wutke Sophia, Voigt Anja, Coburn Josephine, Menzel Randolf
Department Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Department Information Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Apr 28;15:647224. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.647224. eCollection 2021.
As a canary in a coalmine warns of dwindling breathable air, the honeybee can indicate the health of an ecosystem. Honeybees are the most important pollinators of fruit-bearing flowers, and share similar ecological niches with many other pollinators; therefore, the health of a honeybee colony can reflect the conditions of a whole ecosystem. The health of a colony may be mirrored in social signals that bees exchange during their sophisticated body movements such as the waggle dance. To observe these changes, we developed an automatic system that records and quantifies social signals under normal beekeeping conditions. Here, we describe the system and report representative cases of normal social behavior in honeybees. Our approach utilizes the fact that honeybee bodies are electrically charged by friction during flight and inside the colony, and thus they emanate characteristic electrostatic fields when they move their bodies. These signals, together with physical measurements inside and outside the colony (temperature, humidity, weight of the hive, and activity at the hive entrance) will allow quantification of normal and detrimental conditions of the whole colony. The information provided instructs how to setup the recording device, how to install it in a normal bee colony, and how to interpret its data.
正如煤矿中的金丝雀能警示可呼吸空气的减少一样，蜜蜂能够指示生态系统的健康状况。蜜蜂是结果实花朵最重要的授粉者，并且与许多其他授粉者有着相似的生态位；因此，一个蜂群的健康状况能够反映整个生态系统的状况。蜂群的健康状况可能会在蜜蜂通过复杂身体动作（如摇摆舞）进行交流的社会信号中得以体现。为了观察这些变化，我们开发了一个自动系统，该系统能在正常养蜂条件下记录并量化社会信号。在此，我们描述该系统并报告蜜蜂正常社会行为的典型案例。我们的方法利用了这样一个事实，即蜜蜂的身体在飞行和蜂巢内部时会因摩擦而带电，因此当它们移动身体时会发出独特的静电场。这些信号，连同蜂巢内外的物理测量数据（温度、湿度、蜂巢重量以及蜂巢入口处的活动情况），将能够量化整个蜂群的正常和有害状况。所提供的信息说明了如何设置记录设备、如何将其安装在正常蜂群中以及如何解读其数据。
