Social distancing, which has become a part of daily life with the Kovid-19 pandemic, is also seen in the animal world.
Scientists have revealed that honeybees practice social distancing when parasites called mites threaten their hives.
Social distancing, which has become a part of daily life with the Kovid-19 pandemic, is also seen in the animal world.
Gorillas interact infrequently with different groups; On the other hand, it was seen that bats practice social distance by staying away from each other when they are sick and reduce the contagiousness of the disease.
Now experts have compared the behavior of bees in hives infested with Varroa destructor mites to bees in non-parasitic hives.
By watching the video footage recorded inside the hives, the scientists found that when the hives are infected with parasites, the foraging bees perform their waggle dance away from the center of the colony to indicate the direction of their food source.
According to Independent Turkish, there are usually young bees and queen bees at the center of the colony.
Alessandro Cini, co-author of the study, said this behavior could help keep the parasites in check and limit the damage:
“Foraging bees are one of the main entry routes for the mites. So the longer they stay away from the brood and young individuals, the more successful the mites are in preventing their spread in the colony.”
The research team also discovered that the bees’ grooming behavior changed.
In parasite-free colonies, grooming tends to be concentrated on the young in the middle of the hive. However, it was observed that young people were more concentrated in the colony invaded by mites.
Cini, “The bees are probably focusing on the more important part of the colony, leaving aside the grooming of the foraging bees” he said.
The scientists then infected groups of less than 12 young bees in the lab with the mites, comparing them to other groups without the parasites. This time, the findings showed no increase in social distancing. Cini said social distancing is probably more costly on a small scale.
But once again, changes in grooming behaviors were seen. The bees were more groomed in the parasitic groups.
He talked about the jinn research as follows:
“Honeybees are social animals. They benefit from mutual grooming and sharing responsibility. But bees seem to have evolved to balance the benefits and risks by practicing social distancing when social activities increase the risk of infection.”
Odatv.com
–
