Parasitic Cape honeybee workers, Apis mellifera capensis, evade policing.

Relocation of the Cape honeybee, Apis mellifera capensis, by bee-keepers from southern to northern South Africa in 1990 has caused widespread death of managed African honeybee, A. m. scutellata, colonies. Apis mellifera capensis worker bees are able to lay diploid, female eggs without mating by means of automictic thelytoky (meiosis followed by fusion of two meiotic products to restore egg diploidy), whereas workers of other honeybee subspecies are able to lay only haploid, male eggs. The A. m. capensis workers, which are parasitizing and killing A. m. scutellata colonies in northern South Africa, are the asexual offspring of a single, original worker in which the small amount of genetic variation observed is due to crossing over during meiosis (P. Kryger, personal communication). Here we elucidate two principal mechanisms underlying this parasitism. Parasitic A. m. capensis workers activate their ovaries in host colonies that have a queen present (queenright colonies), and they lay eggs that evade being killed by other workers (worker policing)-the normal fate of worker-laid eggs in colonies with a queen. This unique parasitism by workers is an instance in which a society is unable to control the selfish actions of its members.     

Social parasitism by male-producing reproductive workers in a eusocial insect

The evolution of extreme cooperation, as found in eusocial insects (those with a worker caste), is potentially undermined by selfish reproduction among group members. In some eusocial Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps), workers can produce male offspring from unfertilized eggs. Kin selection theory predicts levels of worker reproduction as a function of the relatedness structure of the workers' natal colony and the colony-level costs of worker reproduction. However, the theory has been only partially successful in explaining levels of worker reproduction. Here we show that workers of a eusocial bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) enter unrelated, conspecific colonies in which they then produce adult male offspring, and that such socially parasitic workers reproduce earlier and are significantly more reproductive and aggressive than resident workers that reproduce within their own colonies. Explaining levels of worker reproduction, and hence the potential of worker selfishness to undermine the evolution of cooperation, will therefore require more than simply a consideration of the kin-selected interests of resident workers. It will also require knowledge of the full set of reproductive options available to workers, including intraspecific social parasitism.     

Honeybee colonies achieve fitness through dancing

The honeybee dance language, in which foragers perform dances containing information about the distance and direction to food sources, is the quintessential example of symbolic communication in non-primates. The dance language has been the subject of controversy, and of extensive research into the mechanisms of acquiring, decoding and evaluating the information in the dance. The dance language has been hypothesized, but not shown, to increase colony food collection. Here we show that colonies with disoriented dances (lacking direction information) recruit less effectively to syrup feeders than do colonies with oriented dances. For colonies foraging at natural sources, the direction information sometimes increases food collected, but at other times it makes no difference. The food-location information in the dance is presumably important when food sources are hard to find, variable in richness and ephemeral. Recruitment based simply on arousal of foragers and communication of floral odour, as occurs in honeybees, bumble bees and some stingless bees, can be equally effective under other circumstances. Clarifying the condition-dependent payoffs of the dance language provides new insight into its function in honeybee ecology.     

大鸨野外生态的初步观察

于2000年4月至2001年7月,在白城地区镇赉县大岗林场以北草原上对大鸨的野外习性进行了观察,大鸨3要迁来本地进行繁殖,10月末迁去,每年的5月初至6月中旬产卵,每窝产卵2－5枚,雌鸨孵卵,孵卵期30－35d,刚迁来时大鸨以植物食,进入繁殖期后（6月份）以动物性食物为主。     

Enforced altruism in insect societies

Cooperation among workers and their seeming altruism result from strict policing by nestmates.     

Energetics reveals physiologically distinct castes in a eusocial mammal

Eusociality, which occurs among mammals only in two species of African mole-rat, is characterized by division of labour between morphologically distinct 'castes'. In Damaraland mole-rats (Cryptomys damarensis), colony labour is divided between 'infrequent worker' and 'frequent worker' castes. Frequent workers are active year-round and together perform more than 95% of the total work of the colony, whereas infrequent workers typically perform less than 5% of the total work. Anecdotal evidence suggests that infrequent workers may act as dispersers, with dispersal being limited to comparatively rare periods when the soil is softened by moisture. Here we show that infrequent workers and queens increase their daily energy expenditure after rainfall whereas frequent workers do not. Infrequent workers are also fatter than frequent workers. We suggest that infrequent workers constitute a physiologically distinct dispersing caste, the members of which, instead of contributing to the work of the colony and helping the queen to reproduce, build up their own body reserves in preparation for dispersal and reproduction when environmental conditions are suitable.     

Genetic study on the behavior of honeybees influenced by polyandry system

Within a honeybee population, due to polyandry, there are supersister and halfsister relations, thus many subfamilies exist. For the Chinese honeybee (Apis cerana cerana F.) a phylogenetic dendrogram has been constructed in which 4 subfamilies are clustered based on DNA fingerprint patterns. And it has been observed that each kind of workers is distributed to several dierent sub-families.     

Queen activation of lazy workers in colonies of the eusocial naked mole-rat.

Evolutionary conflicts of interest are expected to arise in genetically diverse social groups. In eusocial insect societies, a potential conflict exists between the queen and her workers over how active the workers should be, and evidence exists that queen aggression increases activity levels of her lazier workers. Here I provide evidence that queen aggression (shoving) in laboratory colonies of the eusocial mammal, the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), is a convergently evolved manifestation of queen-worker conflict over worker activity. Queen-initiated shoves activate inherently lazy workers, which tend to be larger and/or less related to the queen than are infrequently shoved, industrious workers. In addition, queen removal selectively depresses the activity of workers that are larger and less related to her. Finally, queen shoving and worker inactivity are pronounced when colonies are satiated but not when colonies are hungry, indicating that the underlying 'work-conflict' is highly context-specific.     

Clonal origin of haematopoietic colonies in the postnatal mouse liver

The liver of the neonatal mouse continues to show haematopoietic activity for up to 2 weeks after birth and morphological analysis has shown that this activity becomes focused in discrete haematopoietic colonies by the end of the first week postnatal. Furthermore, each colony contains cells of one haematopoietic lineage only, that is, erythroid, myeloid or pre-B-lymphoid cells. This pattern of differentiation suggests that each colony is derived from a single committed precursor cell, which, if true, would represent the first demonstration of non-mixed haematopoietic colonies in normal development and would provide a useful system for studying the factors affecting the clonal diversity of haematopoietic stem cells and their lineage-committed progeny. Here we have analysed the haematopoietic foci in the liver of neonatal mouse chimaeras, using a newly developed ubiquitous in situ cell marker system which clearly demonstrates the clonal origin of these colonies.     

最短路的蚁群算法收敛性分析

蚁群算法最初出发点是模拟蚂蚁觅食,蚂蚁可以利用局部信息素的变化找到从蚁穴到食物的最短路。对求解最短路问题的蚁群算法的收敛性进行了探索性分析,定理给出了寻找最短路的蚁群算法收敛的充分条件,并通过一个数值例子验证了该结果。     

基于人工蜂群算法的TSP仿真

针对标准蚁群算法求解的旅行商问题(TSP)存在收敛速度慢,易陷入局部最优等缺陷,将求解组合优化问题的过程转化为蜜蜂群寻找优良蜜源的过程,并分析了人工蜂群算法及3种基本算法模型,3种引领因子更新策略,讨论了转移因子动态更新公式及状态转移公式,研究了利用该算法求解TSP问题的具体步骤,通过典型的TSP实例进行了仿真实验,结果表明该算法能够克服早熟现象,迭代次数少,收敛速度快,通用性强,比标准蚁群算法具有一定优势.     

Comparison of the Photosynthetic Characteristics of Two Developmental Stages in Nostoc sphaeroides Kutzing （Cyanophyta）

The photosynthetic activities between two main developmental stages, colony and hormogonium, of the edible cyanobacterium Nostoc sphaeroides Kutzing, were compared. Hormogonia have a higher content of chlorophyll than that of colonies. It showed that the ratios of phycocyain （PC）, allophycocyain （APC） and phycoerythrocyanin （PEC） in hormogonia and colonies were different. The room temperature chlorophyll fluorescence, 77 K chlorophyll fluorescence, measurements of PSⅠand PS Ⅱ activities all showed that colony has higher photosynthetic competence than hormogonia. Hormogonia had a higher respiration rate than colony, while their maximum photosynthetic oxygen evolution rates were very close. The responses of hormogonia and colonies to high light illuminations also were different. Both of their oxygen evolution rates decreased quickly with the prolonged high light illumination, but hormogonia can keep relatively higher PSⅡ activity （Fv/Fm） than that of colonies. The results suggested that colony was photosynthetically more competent than hormogonia, while the ability of hormogonia to tolerate high light illumination was higher than that of colony.     

Apis mellifera capensis蜜蜂失控自复制导致的正常群落破坏

提出对Apis mellifera capensis蜂造成Apis mellifera scutellata蜂群破坏的机制的一种新猜测，并根据logistic模型分别讨论这种猜测和已有的MARTIN猜测所导致的不同性质和规律，对2种猜测进行了比较．加强对社会成员之间信息网络的管理和监督，这也许是更加有效地防止破坏性子群体泛滥的途径．     

菌落PCR方法筛选低能离子束辐射引起的IS插入突变

建立一种基于单拷贝基因的菌落PCR方法,筛选低能离子束辐射下IS因子插入引起的大肠杆菌lacI基因突变.PCR的优化结果显示,DMSO是一种合适的添加剂,而细胞的裂解方法和过程在菌落PCR中有比较关键的作用.经过测定,该方法的菌落PCR最低菌浓度约为1×105个菌.0.8%琼脂糖凝胶电泳结果显示,96个突变子的菌落PCR的成功率为95%以上.测序结果表明:两个由IS因子插入引起的突变被成功筛选.     

基于群体智能的蚁群算法研究

群体智能是指任何启发于群居性昆虫群体和其它动物群体的集体行为而设计的算法和分布式问题解决装置,群体智能现正在成为人工智能领域和相关领域的一个研究热点;该文首先介绍了群体智能中的两个重要算法:蚁群算法和粒子群算法的基本思想,然后重点探讨了蚁群优化算法,对基本蚁群算法和改进的蚁群算法进行了深入的分析和评述。     

红色斑马鱼的人工繁殖试验

将性腺发育良好的雌雄红色斑马鱼配对放入缸底铺小卵石的繁殖缸中,为其提供一定的条件,促使亲鱼繁殖产卵。一对亲鱼产下约200～300粒淡黄色鱼卵,约48小时后受精卵孵化出无色透明的仔鱼。以灰水和蛋黄水投喂仔鱼,2个月后培育出48尾体长2-3cm的红色斑马鱼幼鱼。     

猕猴群及新引入猕猴群志贺菌分布情况及药物敏感性调查

目的对原有猴群及新引入猴群进行志贺菌带菌情况及抗生素敏感性调查。方法采用国标(GB/T14926.47-2001)的检测方法,对1 149份猕猴粪便样品进行细菌分离、鉴定及药敏实验。结果原猴群感染率比引入猴群高2.75%,且两组均以B群志贺菌感染为主;原猴群D群感染率也较高,而新引入猴群无D群感染,C群感染率较高。药物敏感性试验,原猴群感染菌对头孢噻肟、头孢唑啉较敏感,但高敏菌株并不多,绝大多数菌株耐药;新引入猴群感染菌对头孢曲松、头孢噻肟、痢特灵、头孢哌酮较为敏感,且高敏感率较原猴群高。结论由于引入新的猴群,志贺菌的分型较复杂,且综合药物敏感性较差。此试验为动物生产及防病治病提供了依据。     

Ant-like task allocation and recruitment in cooperative robots

One of the greatest challenges in robotics is to create machines that are able to interact with unpredictable environments in real time. A possible solution may be to use swarms of robots behaving in a self-organized manner, similar to workers in an ant colony. Efficient mechanisms of division of labour, in particular series-parallel operation and transfer of information among group members, are key components of the tremendous ecological success of ants. Here we show that the general principles regulating division of labour in ant colonies indeed allow the design of flexible, robust and effective robotic systems. Groups of robots using ant-inspired algorithms of decentralized control techniques foraged more efficiently and maintained higher levels of group energy than single robots. But the benefits of group living decreased in larger groups, most probably because of interference during foraging. Intriguingly, a similar relationship between group size and efficiency has been documented in social insects. Moreover, when food items were clustered, groups where robots could recruit other robots in an ant-like manner were more efficient than groups without information transfer, suggesting that group dynamics of swarms of robots may follow rules similar to those governing social insects.     

Parasitoid secretions provoke ant warfare

Insect social parasites are extreme specialists that typically use mimicry or stealth to enter ant colonies to exploit the rich, but fiercely protected, resources within their nests. Here we show how a parasitic wasp (parasitoid) contrives to reach its host, itself an endangered species of social parasite that lives inside the brood chambers of ant nests, by releasing semiochemicals to induce in-fighting between worker ants, locking the colony in combat and leaving it underprotected. Four of these chemicals are new to biology and have the potential to control pest species by inducing different agonistic behaviours in ants.     

道路水域对中国林蛙繁殖的影响

2011—2014年,在长白山自然保护区选取3条长10 km的道路样带,分析水体类型、水体面积、水深、距道路距离、相对潮湿度和干扰因素等6个生境因子对中国林蛙产卵量及卵损失率的影响.结果显示:3条样带共调查到479个水体,记录1 451个卵;每个水体样本平均卵数量为(3.02±0.322)个;卵总损失数量为898个,每个水体平均损失数量为(1.87±0.27)个,总损失率为58.44%.研究表明:仅水深(P0.05)显著影响中国林蛙产卵数量;中国林蛙在道路两侧产卵对繁殖地水深60 cm具有一定选择性;相对潮湿度(P0.05)显著影响中国林蛙产卵损失率;相对潮湿度中半干旱类型对卵损失影响最大.