Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
410 MRAK HALL
DAVIS,CA 95616-8671
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
(N/A)
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
A major research goal of honeybee research is the monitoring of bee colony health using noninvasive methods. Hyperspectral imaging is a potentially powerful method. In a series of recently published studies, our University of California, Davis (UC Davis) collaborator has demonstrated that reflectance features extracted from hyperspectral images can be used to identify differences between classes that appear virtually identical to the human eye. Near-infrared spectroscopy has been used to differentiate mated and unmated honey bee queens based on differences in reflectance profiles acquired from the bee abdomen. A recently published study on the temporal changes in insect body reflectance detected in response to two killing agents (entomopathgenic nematodes and an insecticidal plant extract) used against adult maize weevils and black flour beetles were written by the UC Davis collaborator. These studies have demonstrated that reflectance-based hyperspectral imaging of the insect body can non-destructively and non-invasively quantify stress detection. The specific objectives of this study are: 1) to analyze reflectance features extracted from the hyperspectral imaging data acquired from honey bees sampled from field experiments being conducted on the effects of pesticide exposure to honey bee colony health and activity; and 2) to deliver this analysis to the ARS Principal Investigator as part of a joint research publication.
Project Methods
1) Bring hyperspectral imaging equipment to the ARS Principal Investigator's lab at a minimum of three time points during the season; 2) During each research visit, to acquire hyperspectral imaging from 5 honey bee workers from each bee colony in the experiment; 3) acquire images from frozen specimens from a previous experiment to evaluate the potential of using frozen rather than live specimens; 4) Analyze the data at the University of California, Davis, using methods developed by the UC Davis collaborator.