To bee or not to bee?: The pollination biology ofApios americana (Leguminosae)

The only hard evidence from field studies in the natural range ofApios americana (Leguminosae) indicates that this species is frequently triploid and seed sterile, and that the only legitimate pollinators are Megachilid bees. Claims of fly pollination based exclusively on examination of floral features of a European botanic garden specimen are unwarranted.     

Born to be bee,fed to be worker? The caste system of a primitively eusocial insect

Introduction

Primitively eusocial halictid bees are excellent systems to study the origin of eusociality, because all individuals have retained the ancestral ability to breed independently. In the sweat bee Halictus scabiosae, foundresses overwinter, establish nests and rear a first brood by mass-provisioning each offspring with pollen and nectar. The mothers may thus manipulate the phenotype of their offspring by restricting their food provisions. The first brood females generally help their mother to rear a second brood of males and gynes that become foundresses. However, the first brood females may also reproduce in their maternal or in other nests, or possibly enter early diapause. Here, we examined if the behavioural specialization of the first and second brood females was associated with between-brood differences in body size, energetic reserves and pollen provisions.

Results

The patterns of variation in adult body size, weight, fat content and food provisioned to the first and second brood indicate that H. scabiosae has dimorphic females. The first-brood females were significantly smaller, lighter and had lower fat reserves than the second-brood females and foundresses. The first-brood females were also less variable in size and fat content, and developed on homogeneously smaller pollen provisions. Foundresses were larger than gynes of the previous year, suggesting that small females were less likely to survive the winter.

Conclusions

The marked size dimorphism between females produced in the first and second brood and the consistently smaller pollen provisions provided to the first brood suggest that the first brood females are channelled into a helper role during their pre-imaginal development. As a large body size is needed for successful hibernation, the mother may promote helping in her first brood offspring by restricting their food provisions. This pattern supports the hypothesis that parental manipulation may contribute to promote worker behaviour in primitively eusocial halictids.

     

The Acute bee paralysis virus–Kashmir bee virus–Israeli acute paralysis virus complex

Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV) and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) are part of a complex of closely related viruses from the Family Dicistroviridae. These viruses have a widespread prevalence in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies and a predominantly sub-clinical etiology that contrasts sharply with the extremely virulent pathology encountered at elevated titres, either artificially induced or encountered naturally. These viruses are frequently implicated in honey bee colony losses, especially when the colonies are infested with the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Here we review the historical and recent literature of this virus complex, covering history and origins; the geographic, host and tissue distribution; pathology and transmission; genetics and variation; diagnostics, and discuss these within the context of the molecular and biological similarities and differences between the viruses. We also briefly discuss three recent developments relating specifically to IAPV, concerning its association with Colony Collapse Disorder, treatment of IAPV infection with siRNA and possible honey bee resistance to IAPV.     

Monitoring bee populations: are eusocial bees attracted to different colours of pan trap than other bees?

Declines in pollinator populations have made monitoring pollinators, in particular bees, increasingly important. There is general agreement among practitioners that using a mix of trap colours is important, but the empirical evidence to support this is scattered. During studies of bees in forestry cutovers, large differences were noted in capture rate among white, blue, and yellow pan traps. Pooled data from collections in cutovers and commercial cranberry fields demonstrated significant differences in the effect of trap colour, with the largest numbers captured in white traps, and the fewest in yellow, but only for the genus Bombus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae). The colour preference was consistent with the spectral sensitivity of Bombus, and the visible reflectance spectra of the traps. A literature review suggested that among eusocial bees, Apis Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are more attracted to white traps and Bombus are more attracted to blue traps, while non-eusocial bees with a variety of social structures are more attracted to yellow. Among the non-eusocial bees, Halictidae were somewhat attracted to blue, while Andrenidae were not. This supports the common practice of using white, blue, and yellow traps when surveying bees to ensure adequate taxonomic representation.     

“Three Kingdoms”to Romance

For some historic reasons, our new journal is named "Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics", or as we have nicknamed it in short the Journal of GPB. A growing number of "-ome" and "-omics" have appeared in many diverse fields of biology, especially in the recent years under profound influences of the Human Genome Project and many other genome projects completed or in progress. We had almost attempted to re-name this journal "Ever-more-omics" to in-     

HasIxianthes (Scrophulariaceae) lost its special bee?

Ixianthes retzioides is a rare, moderately sized, shrub with large yellow flowers that are lined with glandular trichomes. Preliminary analysis indicates that the trichomes secrete a complex mixture of lipids. Floral morphology suggests thatIxianthes should be pollinated by a large oil-collecting bee, yet only one possible candidate,Rediviva gig, is known and it occurs outside of the distributional range ofIxianthes. Despite observations ofIxianthes at different sites in different years, no oil-collecting bee has been observed visiting the flowers. This together with low fruit and seed set at the main study site suggests thatIxianthes has lost, at least locally, its specialized pollinator. Plants are self-compatible and set a limited amount of seed as a result of visits by pollen-collecting bees.     

Wolbachia (Rickettsiales) infections and bee (Apoidea) barcoding: a response to Gerth et al.

In a recent Perspective, Gerth et al. (2011) expressed concern over how Wolbachia (Wolbachia pipientis Hertig) infections may affect the success of DNA barcoding efforts in bees. The potential and realized effects of endosymbiont-induced selective sweeps on host mitochondrial DNA diversity have been noted repeatedly – and rightly so – in the literature for some years. However, we are equally concerned with other misconceptions, including (a) presuming that a positive Wolbachia test indicates a stable infection, (b) presuming that Wolbachia-infected hosts cannot be identified with a single-locus barcode, and (c) inferring specific Wolbachia–mtDNA interactions based only on incomplete genotyping of Wolbachia strains. We address these issues in the context of the Gerth et al. (2011) survey of Wolbachia prevalence among the German bee fauna. We also clarify some of the context-dependent strengths and limitations of DNA barcoding when it is used as a research tool by taxonomists and ecologists.     

Facultative social parasitism in the allodapine bee Macrogalea berentyensis

Previous research on social parasitism has largely ignored allodapine social parasites, which is surprising given the huge potential of these bees to provide a better understanding of social parasitism. Macrogalea berentyensis, a species that was previously suggested to be a social parasite, was collected in nests of M. ellioti, and also in nests consisting of only M. berentyensis. These f＇mdings, along with morphological and phylogenetic evidence, show that this species is a facultative social parasite. In the independently living M. berentyensis nests, brood were present that had been reared to an advanced stage, suggesting that： （i） these parasites may be effective at foraging and caring for their brood; or （ii） these nests may be colonies where all the hosts had died, and these parasites had yet to disperse. Macrogalea berentyensis is the closest relative of the facultative social parasite, M. antanosy, and both these species represent the most recent evolutionary origin of social parasitism within the allodapines. Further behavioral research on both these parasitic species would therefore have important implications for the understanding of the evolution of social parasitism.     

Can an individual bee ommatidium detect an image?

Summary Even if the dioptric apparatus of the worker bee provided a crisp image at the entrance to the rhabdom, the detection of this image is theoretically impossible due to a phenomenon of mode propagation analogous to acoustic beating or interference.Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow.We thank Professor G. A. Horridge and Simon Laughlin for their assistance with this study.     

A New Meaning to “Partnerships”

Abstract

Michael Straight. Nancy Hanks. Durham: Duke University Press, 1988. 429 pages. $22.50 hardback. Reviewed by Samuel Hope.

Business Committee for the Arts Arts Education: A Resource Guide New York: Business Committee for the Arts, 1989 Packet format, 32 pages. $15.00 Reviewed by Samuel Hope.

Livingston Biddle. Our Government and the Arts. New York: ACA Books, 1988. 539 pages. $16.95 paperback. Reviewed by Samuel Hope.

Benjamin Ginsberg. The Captive Public: How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power. New York: Basic Books, 1986. 272 pages. $8.95 paperback. Reviewed by Samuel Hope.

Miklos Haraszti. The Velvet Prison: Artists under State Socialism. New York: Basic Books, 1987. 164 pages. $14.95 hardback. Reviewed by Samuel Hope.     

Introduction to the thematic issue “From brain function to therapy”

<正>This thematic issue of Science China Life Sciences,"From brain function to therapy",highlights some of the exciting research being undertaken in the Joint Laboratory of Neuroscience and Cognition,an international scientific collaboration between the Queensland Brain Institute(QBI)at The     

Do pollen diets vary among adjacent bumble bee colonies?

Central-place foragers, such as bumble bees, are often constrained by their location when collecting resources to provide their young. We compared the resource use (pollen diets) among seven feral colonies of Bombus ardens located in an area of 2.5 × 2.5 km². Because this area was likely to be within their maximum foraging distance, most floral resources could have been accessible to all colonies alike. Similarities in pollen diets among these colonies may suggest that the surrounding resources determine resources use, while deviations from this could reveal other factors that affect resources use among colonies. We examined if colonies showed similarities in pollen diets and if colonies do differ in pollen diets, we investigated whether factors, such as establishment year, colony size, and location, affected the colony pollen diets. We found that while the choices of floral resources were similar, the proportional use of the floral resources were significantly different, suggesting that the surrounding resources do not solely determine resource use among colonies. Further analyses showed that the dissimilarity of pollen diets between two colonies increased as spatial distance decreased, as the temporal distances increased, and as the difference in colony size increased. We found that other than differences in annual variances of resources distribution, colony size was the prominent factor that affected the resource use of our seven colonies. We propose that colony-size-dependent work-force differences and other unidentified colony-size-related factors could have significant effects on floral use among colonies overlapping spatially and temporally.     

Banking brains: a pre-mortem “how to” guide to successful donation

A review of the brain banking literature reveals a primary focus either on the factors that influence the decision to become a future donor or on the brain tissue processing that takes place after the individual has died (i.e., the front-end or back-end processes). What has not been sufficiently detailed, however, is the complex and involved process that takes place after this decision to become a future donor is made yet before post-mortem processing occurs (i.e., the large middle-ground). This generally represents a period of many years during which the brain bank is actively engaged with donors to ensure that valuable clinical information is prospectively collected and that their donation is eventually completed. For the past 15 years, the Essential Tremor Centralized Brain Repository has been actively involved in brain banking, and our experience has provided us valuable insights that may be useful for researchers interested in establishing their own brain banking efforts. In this piece, we fill a gap in the literature by detailing the processes of enrolling participants, creating individualized brain donation plans, collecting clinical information and regularly following-up with donors to update that information, and efficiently coordinating the brain harvest when death finally arrives.     

Quantification Methodology of “Health Human Resources” Related to “Health Technologies” Based on Indicators “RhSan”, “TechSan” and “RhTech”: Application to Senegal

ObjectivesAfter a century of spectacular advances, healthcare systems are facing unprecedented crisis, linked to shortage of health human resources and health technologies. In fact, availability of care depends on both technological and human resources of health. The objective of this study is to develop indicators that can measure qualitatively human resources and technologies of health in healthcare facilities, in order to assess availability of care in sub-Saharan African countries.Materials and MethodsRegarding “health technology” related to “medical devices”, an indicator called “TechSan” for “Technologies de Santé” was previously developed and published (Ndione FB et al. (2019) [6]). To address the deficiencies in usual indicators related to health human resources, a second indicator called “RhSan” for “Ressources humaines de santé” in French is proposed. This indicator assigns a weight to each health worker taking into account his specific “level of medical knowledge” and “experience”. In order to correlate “RhSan” with “TechSan”, a third indicator called “RhTech” is also developed to assess matches between “health technologies” and “health human resources” and establish realistic availability of care. These indicators have the advantage to be consolidated by specialty such as laboratory, imaging, surgery, and “mother and child care”.ResultsThe application of TechSan, RhSan and RhTech to data collected in Senegal in 2016, enabled to assess the distribution of “health technology” and “health human resources” in this country. They also permit the mapping of care availability per specialty in Senegal. The results show a strong oversupply of Dakar in terms of both human resources and technologies of health compared to other Senegalese regions. Oppositely, Sedhiou, Kaffrine, Matam and Kédougou are poorly endowed showing limits of the Senegalese health pyramid system.ConclusionTechSan, RhSan and RhTech can provide reliable decision-making tools in order to elaborate health policies in sub-Saharan African countries on more rigorous basis.