The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings
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 re...
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doaj-215cc7623f38449c9ac5543d1832583a2021-04-28T07:25:25ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience1662-51532021-04-011510.3389/fnbeh.2021.647224647224The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field RecordingsBenjamin H. Paffhausen0Julian Petrasch1Uwe Greggers2Aron Duer3Zhengwei Wang4Simon Menzel5Peter Stieber6Karén Haink7Morgan Geldenhuys8Jana Čavojská9Timo A. Stein10Sophia Wutke11Anja Voigt12Josephine Coburn13Randolf Menzel14Department Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Information Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyCAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, ChinaDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyCAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, ChinaDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyIndependent Researcher, HAPE Imkerei GmbH, Neulußheim, GermanyDepartment Information Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyComplex and Distributed IT Systems, Technische Universtät Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, GermanyAs 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.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.647224/fullhoney bee (Apis mellifera L.)socialelectrostatic fieldbehaviordatalogger |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Benjamin H. Paffhausen Julian Petrasch Uwe Greggers Aron Duer Zhengwei Wang Simon Menzel Peter Stieber Karén Haink Morgan Geldenhuys Jana Čavojská Timo A. Stein Sophia Wutke Anja Voigt Josephine Coburn Randolf Menzel |
spellingShingle |
Benjamin H. Paffhausen Julian Petrasch Uwe Greggers Aron Duer Zhengwei Wang Simon Menzel Peter Stieber Karén Haink Morgan Geldenhuys Jana Čavojská Timo A. Stein Sophia Wutke Anja Voigt Josephine Coburn Randolf Menzel The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) social electrostatic field behavior datalogger |
author_facet |
Benjamin H. Paffhausen Julian Petrasch Uwe Greggers Aron Duer Zhengwei Wang Simon Menzel Peter Stieber Karén Haink Morgan Geldenhuys Jana Čavojská Timo A. Stein Sophia Wutke Anja Voigt Josephine Coburn Randolf Menzel |
author_sort |
Benjamin H. Paffhausen |
title |
The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings |
title_short |
The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings |
title_full |
The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings |
title_fullStr |
The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Electronic Bee Spy: Eavesdropping on Honeybee Communication via Electrostatic Field Recordings |
title_sort |
electronic bee spy: eavesdropping on honeybee communication via electrostatic field recordings |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience |
issn |
1662-5153 |
publishDate |
2021-04-01 |
description |
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. |
topic |
honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) social electrostatic field behavior datalogger |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.647224/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
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