在《通讯-生物学》发表的Searching for nests of the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) using radio-telemetry一文里,英国埃克塞特大学的Peter Kennedy的团队声称,这是第一次有研究讨论是否可以将该方法运用于社会性昆虫身上。
摘要:Asian hornets (Vespa velutina) are voracious predators of bees, and are the latest emerging threat to managed and wild pollinator populations in Europe. To prevent establishment or reduce the rate of spread of V. velutina, early detection and destruction of nests is considered the only option. Detection is difficult as their nests are well hidden and flying hornets are difficult to follow over long distances. We address this challenge by tracking individual V. velutina workers flying back to their nests using radio telemetry for the first time, finding five previously undiscovered nests, up to 1.33 km from hornet release points. Hornets can fly with 0.28 g tags if the tag:hornet ratio is less than 0.8. This method offers a step-change in options to tackle the spread of this invader, providing an efficient means of finding V. velutina nests in complex environments to manage this emerging threat to pollinators.
期刊介绍:Communications Biology is an open access journal from Nature Research publishing high-quality research, reviews and commentary in all areas of the biological sciences. Research papers published by the journal represent significant advances bringing new biological insight to a specialized area of research.