Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 15;14(1):3827. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54107-8.
In this work we aim to provide a quantitative method allowing the probing of the physiological status of honeybee colonies by providing them with a gentle, short, external artificial vibrational shockwave, and recording their response. The knock is provided by an external electromagnetic shaker attached to the outer wall of a hive, driven by a computer with a 0.1 s long, monochromatic vibration at 340Hz set to an amplitude that occasionally yields a mild response from the bees, recorded by an accelerometer placed in the middle of the central frame of the colony. To avoid habituation, the stimulus is supplied at randomised times, approximately every hour. The method is pioneered with a pilot study on a single colony hosted indoors, then extended onto eight outdoors colonies. The results show that we can quantitatively sense the colony's overall mobility, independently from another physiological aspect, which is phenomenologically explored. Using this, a colony that is queenless is easily discriminated from the others.
在这项工作中，我们旨在提供一种定量方法，通过给蜜蜂群提供温和、短暂的外部人工振动冲击波，并记录它们的反应，来探测蜜蜂群的生理状态。敲击是通过附着在蜂巢外壁上的外部电磁振动器产生的，由计算机驱动，以 340Hz 的频率产生 0.1 秒长的单色振动，振幅设置为偶尔能引起蜜蜂轻微反应的程度，由放置在蜂巢中央框架中间的加速度计记录。为了避免习惯化，刺激以随机时间提供，大约每小时一次。该方法首先在一个室内饲养的单个蜂群中进行了试点研究，然后扩展到八个户外蜂群。结果表明，我们可以定量感知蜂群的整体活动性，而不受其他生理方面的影响，这是一个现象学上的探索。使用这种方法，很容易将无蜂王的蜂群与其他蜂群区分开来。
