Waste management in the stingless bee Melipona beecheii Bennett (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Waste management is important in insect societies because waste can be hazardous to adults, brood and food stores. The general organization of waste management and the influence of task partitioning, division of labor and age polyethism on waste processing were studied in three colonies of the tropical American stingless bee Melipona beecheii Bennett in Yucatán, Mexico. Waste generated in the colony (feces, old brood cells, cocoons, dead adults and brood) was collected by workers throughout the nest and taken to specific waste dumps within the nest. During the day, workers based at the waste dumps formed waste pellets, which they directly transferred in 93% of cases, to other workers who subsequently removed them from the nest. This is an example of task partitioning and is hypothesized to improve nest hygiene as has been found in leafcutting ants, Atta. To investigate division of labor and age polyethism we marked a cohort of 144 emerging workers. Workers forming waste pellets were on average 31.2±6.5 days old (±SD, N= 40, range of 18-45 days). The life span of M. beecheii workers was 49.0±14.0 days (N= 144). There was no difference in the life span of workers who formed (52.2±11.6 days, N= 40) or did not form (49.9±11.5 days, N= 97) waste pellets, suggesting that waste work did not increase mortality. Although waste was probably not hazardous to adults and brood, because the dumps are located outside the brood chamber, its presence inside the nests can attract phorid flies and predators, which can harm the colony

Developing a Supportive Framework for Learning on Biosciences Field Courses through Video-Based Resources

Field courses are an essential component of the undergraduate experience in many subjects, but are intensive and expensive for participating students. Unpreparedness often means time is used teaching the basics rather than challenging students in exciting and novel situations. Moreover, universal participation is not always possible. Video-based resources covering key concepts and techniques could help participant preparedness and could be used independently by non-participants. This reflective case study details a collaborative project in which students and instructors worked together to make conceptual and instructional videos during a highly applied biosciences field course in South Africa. In 2012, after training from a professional wildlife filmmaker, students were involved in planning, presenting, and filming 25 videos. Students benefited considerably from the filmmaking process as explaining concepts and filming techniques helped reinforce their understanding: an example of "see one, do one, teach one." The online, open-access videos were used by the 2013 cohort to increase preparedness and independently by non-participants to good effect, both internally and at several external institutions. New videos will be added each year to expand the resource base and allow students to gain from the filmmaking experience. This teaching and learning strategy is multidisciplinary, with relevance for a range of subjects

Marketing Insects: Can Exploiting a Commercial Framework Help Promote Undervalued Insect Species?

The potential decline of insects and their contribution to ecosystem services is a matter of immense concern. Reversing the current degradation of the natural world will require substantial attitudinal and behavioural shifts, but for this to occur people will need to buy-in to decisions and choices that may be less desirable than those they currently make. People will also need to appreciate the importance of ecosystems, habitats and species that are currently regarded as uncharismatic, including of course a great many insects and other invertebrates. To do this requires a radical shift in our approach to marketing the natural world in general and insects in particular. We propose adopting the approach used so successfully in commercial marketing; the 4Ps framework (product, price, place and promotion). We outline examples of how this would result in more informed and effective ways to market biodiversity, expanding focus away from species traditionally considered charismatic. The public perception of insects, a group that includes some of the most loved and many of the most disliked taxa on the planet, could potentially be substantially improved by the use of this approach. If such a marketing strategy can raise their perceived value, it follows that the public may care more about insects and empower conservation action

The Role of Citizen Science and Volunteer Data Collection in Zoological Research

In many ways, science has never been as popular as it is now. With an ever-increasing number of popular science books on everything from astronomy to climate change and evolution and entire TV channels devoted to science output, the public seems spoilt for choice. However, paradoxically, there is also an increasing disconnect between science—and scientists—and society, and this is certainly evident in the life sciences. This disconnect comes in two forms: interest and level of knowledge. Indeed, one has only to look at the 2012 US presidential election campaign to see the lack of scientific knowledge possessed by many of the political elite about topics such as climate change. If high profile scientific topics are still so widely misunderstood by those in the public eye, it is unsurprising that there is such a lack of understanding of, and interest in, scientific topics in the general public. It should, in theory, be the easiest to address this discontent in subjects like zoology, where the evidence is all around us and can be easily seen, appreciated, and studied by the world’s citizens

Keeping invertebrate research ethical in a landscape of shifting public opinion

(1) Invertebrate study systems are cornerstones of biological and biomedical research, providing key insights into fields from genetics to behavioural ecology. Despite the widespread use of invertebrates in research there are very few ethical guidelines surrounding their use. (2) Focussing on two ethical considerations faced during invertebrate studies – collecting methods and euthanasia - we make recommendations for integrating principles of vertebrate research into invertebrate research practice. (3) We argue, given emerging research on invertebrate cognition and shifting public perception on the use of invertebrates in research, it is vital that the scientific community revisits the ethics of invertebrate use in research. (4) Without careful consideration and development of the ethics surrounding the use of invertebrates by the scientific community, there is a danger of losing public support. It is imperative that the public understand the significance of research that uses invertebrates and that scientists demonstrate their ethical treatment of their experimental subjects

Venus Flytrap Seedlings Show Growth-Related Prey Size Specificity

Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) has had a conservation status of vulnerable since the 1970s. Little research has focussed on the ecology and even less has examined its juvenile stages. For the first time, reliance on invertebrate prey for growth was assessed in seedling Venus flytrap by systematic elimination of invertebrates from the growing environment. Prey were experimentally removed from a subset of Venus flytrap seedlings within a laboratory environment. The amount of growth was measured by measuring trap midrib length as a function of overall growth as well as prey spectrum. There was significantly lower growth in prey-eliminated plants than those utilising prey. This finding, although initially unsurprising, is actually contrary to the consensus that seedlings (traps < 5 mm) do not catch prey. Furthermore, flytrap was shown to have prey specificity at its different growth stages; the dominant prey size for seedlings did not trigger mature traps. Seedlings are capturing and utilising prey for nutrients to increase their overall trap size. These novel findings show Venus flytrap to have a much more complex evolutionary ecology than previously thought

Correlates of vulnerability to climate-induced distribution changes in European avifauna: habitat, migration and endemism

Accelerated climatic change will alter species’ distributions substantially by the end of the 21st Century and studies modeling distribution change using Climatic Envelope Modeling (CEM) are increasingly crucial for understanding long-term biotic implications of climate change. However, most CEM studies generate either all-species means, which are of limited practical use, or copious species-specific predictions that make it hard to draw general conclusions about those groups most vulnerable. Intermediate analyses that are half way between these two extremes are necessary to establish the relative vulnerability of species to change based on factors that can be related directly to policy and practice, including habitat associations and ecological traits such as endemism and migration status. Here we use species-specific CEM data to analyse changes in geographical distribution, range size, and overlap between current and potential ranges, for all 431 bird species breeding regularly in Europe. Future range sizes are predicted to be 80 % of current range sizes, with an average overlap of 39 %. However, we show that change varies significantly according to habitat, current range size, and endemism status, with no differences according to migration status. Coastal, wetland and upland birds will be significantly worse off under CEM scenarios than birds associated with woodland, farmland and heathland, while urban birds and those using multiple habitats doing best. Birds with small ranges show more severe, and spatially more complex, distribution shifts. The identification of species groups most vulnerable to climate change means that CEM predictions can now be used to inform policy and management, especially where initiatives are based on species grouped according to such variables or where habitat-specific policies are in place

A higher degree of resilience: Using psychometric testing to reveal the benefits of university internship placements

Resilience is a multi-faceted concept but, in the context of learning, it can best be thought of as an individual’s capacity to create and maximise opportunities as well as responding positively to setbacks and challenges. Developing students’ resilience is becoming increasingly important. Research has shown resilience links to attainment, retention, engagement and employability. However, very little work has examined what aspects of curricula enhance resilience and the particular role of active learning frameworks in achieving this. Here, we analyse the effects of optional real-world internship placements on eight measures of resilience. Psychometric testing was conducted twice per student – at the start of their second academic year and again at the end. Students choosing an internship had significantly higher challenge orientation and adaptability scores than other students in the same cohort. Adaptability of both interns and non-interns improved over the academic year, but improvement was significantly higher for interns. Scores for optimism, purposeful direction, and ingenuity significantly increased between start-of-year and end-of-year tests for interns versus a decline for non-interns. We conclude that facilitating student engagement with real-world issues and challenges through supported internships within an active learning framework is an important mechanism for increasing students’ resilience

Mortality rates and division of labor in the leaf-cutting ant, Atta colombica

Division of labor in social groups is affected by the relative costs and benefits of conducting different tasks. However, most studies have examined the dynamics of division of labor, rather than the costs and benefits that presumably underlie the evolution of such systems. In social insects, division of labor may be simplistically described as a source-sink system, with external tasks, such as foraging, acting as sinks for the work force. The implications of two distinct sinks – foraging and waste-heap working – for division of labor were examined in the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica. Intrinsic mortality rates were similar across external task groups. Exposure to waste (a task-related environment) led to a 60% increase in the mortality rate of waste-heap workers compared to workers not exposed to waste. Given the small number of workers present in the waste-heap task group, such increases in mortality are unlikely to affect division of labor and task allocation dramatically, except perhaps under conditions of stress

FOR REAL: Forming Resilience and Employability through Authentic Learning, 2015 action research report

How 'real world' learning aids student learning, resilience and employabilit