what's on the back of a furry bumblebee? It's a little QR code.

remember these bumblebees with QR codes? This is actually a way for researchers to track a large number of individual bumblebees. This simplified version of the QR code, called "BEEtag", encodes the number of each individual bumblebee, which the computer can read directly through image recognition.

the researchers labeled bumblebees with a QR code to understand how pesticides affect colonies. Bees are important pollinators in nature, and pesticides can affect both domestic and wild bees, but the specific mechanism of these negative effects is not clear in the past.

the pesticides in the environment may not kill the bees immediately, but their behavior has changed. in order to figure out exactly how, we have to distinguish a large number of individuals from one by one. Traditional marking methods require experimenters to identify manually from video records, so it is difficult to track a large number of individuals for a long time, and just observing for five minutes can be exhausting. With BEEtag, the researchers were able to record the colony 12 times a day, and the computer automatically analyzed the data to get each individual's trajectory.

recently, this research project was published in Science. This time the researchers first tested imidacloprid, a new nicotine insecticide. The researchers fed normal sugar water to the bumblebees, or mixed with a small amount of imidacloprid (referring to possible exposure in the actual environment). The results showed that pesticides reduced the activity of bumblebees, reduced communication between individuals, and reduced their behavior in caring for larvae. In addition, pesticides reduce the ability of worker bees to maintain hive temperature, which is likely to affect the development of larvae.

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

Wanna try online shopping? We have glittering collection of 6th grade graduation dresses of tasteful nature. Take time to enjoy in these collections!

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(test bees absorbing sugar water)

(although the topic is a bit heavy, the bumblebee with the QR code is really cute _ (: posts "∠) _)

original paper: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/362/6415/683

related report: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/new-tracking-system-could-show-last-how-pesticides-are-harming-bee-colonies