| 研究実績の概要 |
The overall goal of the project was to use computer vision to understand genetic control of honey bee behavior. We originally focused on the genetic control of the dance language, which, based on previous studies, seemed like the best target for investigation. However, after two field seasons of trying to breed temperate climate-adapted Carniolan bees in Okinawa, we had difficulty to set up the crosses. Currently, we are working on continuing investigation of this phenotype with international collaborators. Instead, we have focused on other aspects of bee behavior that we could study more readily and have made a number of interesting discoveries in the process, potentially revealing a novel control mechanism responsible for the evolution of eusociality.
The first phase of this project was focused on software development with the goal of creating a tracking system capable of following individual unmarked bees, recently published (Bozek et al., 2018). We are currently conducting a study that follows all the bees in a colony over time to identify how the society allocates is labor force as a function of resource availability. This will be the first study to use unmarked individuals in the field to learn how social insect colonies function. We expect this study to be finished by the end of the field season in August, 2018.
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