Bees play a crucial role in the global food chain,pollinating over 75% of food and producing valuable products such as bee pollen,propolis,and royal jelly.However,theAsian hornet poses a serious threat to bee populati...Bees play a crucial role in the global food chain,pollinating over 75% of food and producing valuable products such as bee pollen,propolis,and royal jelly.However,theAsian hornet poses a serious threat to bee populations by preying on them and disrupting agricultural ecosystems.To address this issue,this study developed a modified YOLOv7tiny(You Only Look Once)model for efficient hornet detection.The model incorporated space-to-depth(SPD)and squeeze-and-excitation(SE)attention mechanisms and involved detailed annotation of the hornet’s head and full body,significantly enhancing the detection of small objects.The Taguchi method was also used to optimize the training parameters,resulting in optimal performance.Data for this study were collected from the Roboflow platformusing a 640×640 resolution dataset.The YOLOv7tinymodel was trained on this dataset.After optimizing the training parameters using the Taguchi method,significant improvements were observed in accuracy,precision,recall,F1 score,andmean average precision(mAP)for hornet detection.Without the hornet head label,incorporating the SPD attentionmechanism resulted in a peakmAP of 98.7%,representing an 8.58%increase over the original YOLOv7tiny.By including the hornet head label and applying the SPD attention mechanism and Soft-CIOU loss function,themAP was further enhanced to 97.3%,a 7.04% increase over the original YOLOv7tiny.Furthermore,the Soft-CIOU Loss function contributed to additional performance enhancements during the validation phase.展开更多
The yellow granules in the gastral cuticle of the Oriental hornet Vespa oriental＆ （Hymenoptera, Vespinae） are located in yellow stripes. In the present study, we focus on the micromorphology and formation of the ye...The yellow granules in the gastral cuticle of the Oriental hornet Vespa oriental＆ （Hymenoptera, Vespinae） are located in yellow stripes. In the present study, we focus on the micromorphology and formation of the yellow granules from their inception to their spread in the regions which are destined to acquire a yellow color, The cuticle was observed with several methods of electron microscopy. The results showed that the yellow granules comprise a layer which is 20-25 μm thick, within the total cuticular thickness of 40-45 μm. In the mentioned regions one can see, from above, many apertures of about 0.5μm in diameter which extends into a peripheral photoreceptor cell. In each yellow granule, one discerns a myoid envelope inside which there are 9 fibrils arranged in a circle. Yellow granules maturation process involves infiltration of canals that give rise to the incipient ball-shaped primary granules which increase in number （as a result of continues budding off the walls of a canal） as the cuticle matures and transform into secondary barrel shaped granules, becoming elongated and then splitting into shorter barrels that fill up the entire area. Preliminary examinations have suggested liver-like function activity within the layer of yellow granules.展开更多
Vespicochory, seed dispersal by hornets, is a rare seed dispersal mechanism in angiosperms and, to date, there are few records of this phenomenon.Through field investigations and behavioral assays conducted in four po...Vespicochory, seed dispersal by hornets, is a rare seed dispersal mechanism in angiosperms and, to date, there are few records of this phenomenon.Through field investigations and behavioral assays conducted in four populations of Stemona tuberosa from 2011–2016, we demonstrate that hornets are the primary seed dispersers of S. tuberosa and play an important role in "long-distance" seed dispersal in this species. Furthermore, some ant species act as secondary dispersers and may transport the seeds to safe sites.Hornets and ants provide complementary seed dispersal at different spatial scales. This unique example of insect-plant mutualism may be an underestimated but important strategy to ensure "long-distance" seed dispersal in other myrmecochorous plants.展开更多
Vespa velutina is an invasive hornet species that is colonising Europe,generating considerable impacts on honeybees,beekeeping and biodiversity.Control and early warning strategies for this species are mainly based on...Vespa velutina is an invasive hornet species that is colonising Europe,generating considerable impacts on honeybees,beekeeping and biodiversity.Control and early warning strategies for this species are mainly based on monitoring plans and procedures of nest detection and destruction.Technological tools(harmonic radar,radio-telemetry)have been developed to increase the probabilities of nest detection in new outbreaks.Since hornets are able to regulate nest temperature,thermography may represent an additional technique that may be used,both alone or in support to other techniques.In this study,the viability of thermal imaging in detecting nests of V.velutina was evaluated in controlled conditions.The influence of different environmental and operative variables(time of the day,presence/absence of leaves covering the nest,distance between the nest and the operator)were tested on three nests detected during August 2018 in Italy.All the nests were detectable by thermal imaging,but environmental and operative variables affect their detectability.The temperature difference between the nests and the surrounding reaches its maximum before sunrise and without a tree canopy covering the nests.Although nests were visible in some cases from 30 m,the detectability was higher at shorter distances,even if this variable may also depend on infrared camera resolution.An increase in the environmental temperature also generates a decrease of nest detectability.Although some limitations could occur,these results show the applicability of thermography in detecting V velutina nests before the beginning of the reproductive phase,and consequently its potentiality in control strategies.展开更多
An improved unslotted CSMA/CA MAC scheme of HORNET based on the node structure with variable optical buffer is reported. It can be used for transmitting high effectively all variable IP packets in the WDM network.
The Yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina , was accidentally introduced in France in 2004, and then spread rapidly through the French territory but also to adjacent European countries (Spain, Portugal, and Belgium). Du...The Yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina , was accidentally introduced in France in 2004, and then spread rapidly through the French territory but also to adjacent European countries (Spain, Portugal, and Belgium). During summer and autumn, V. velutina workers hunt domestic honeybees, Apis mellifera, for feeding their larvae. The impact of this alien species is mainly economic, beekeepers experiencing heavy colony losses, but also ecological, V. velutina hunting other pollinators. In their year-round life cycle, nest initiation by single queen during spring is the critical stage. In invaded areas, spring queen trapping using food baits has been promoted by apicultural unions in order to limit V. velutina population expansion. The goals of this work were 1) to evaluate the yield of this method, 2) to identify appropriate sites for trapping, 3) to identify potential optimal climatic windows of capture, and 4) to quantify the impact on local entomofauna. Our results showed that water proximity enhances trapping but not beehives proximity, and that trapping is inefficient if average week temperatures are below 10°C. Although the trapping effect on biodiversity should be studied more carefully, spring queen trapping is highly questionable unless specific attractants could be proposed.展开更多
文摘Bees play a crucial role in the global food chain,pollinating over 75% of food and producing valuable products such as bee pollen,propolis,and royal jelly.However,theAsian hornet poses a serious threat to bee populations by preying on them and disrupting agricultural ecosystems.To address this issue,this study developed a modified YOLOv7tiny(You Only Look Once)model for efficient hornet detection.The model incorporated space-to-depth(SPD)and squeeze-and-excitation(SE)attention mechanisms and involved detailed annotation of the hornet’s head and full body,significantly enhancing the detection of small objects.The Taguchi method was also used to optimize the training parameters,resulting in optimal performance.Data for this study were collected from the Roboflow platformusing a 640×640 resolution dataset.The YOLOv7tinymodel was trained on this dataset.After optimizing the training parameters using the Taguchi method,significant improvements were observed in accuracy,precision,recall,F1 score,andmean average precision(mAP)for hornet detection.Without the hornet head label,incorporating the SPD attentionmechanism resulted in a peakmAP of 98.7%,representing an 8.58%increase over the original YOLOv7tiny.By including the hornet head label and applying the SPD attention mechanism and Soft-CIOU loss function,themAP was further enhanced to 97.3%,a 7.04% increase over the original YOLOv7tiny.Furthermore,the Soft-CIOU Loss function contributed to additional performance enhancements during the validation phase.
文摘The yellow granules in the gastral cuticle of the Oriental hornet Vespa oriental＆ （Hymenoptera, Vespinae） are located in yellow stripes. In the present study, we focus on the micromorphology and formation of the yellow granules from their inception to their spread in the regions which are destined to acquire a yellow color, The cuticle was observed with several methods of electron microscopy. The results showed that the yellow granules comprise a layer which is 20-25 μm thick, within the total cuticular thickness of 40-45 μm. In the mentioned regions one can see, from above, many apertures of about 0.5μm in diameter which extends into a peripheral photoreceptor cell. In each yellow granule, one discerns a myoid envelope inside which there are 9 fibrils arranged in a circle. Yellow granules maturation process involves infiltration of canals that give rise to the incipient ball-shaped primary granules which increase in number （as a result of continues budding off the walls of a canal） as the cuticle matures and transform into secondary barrel shaped granules, becoming elongated and then splitting into shorter barrels that fill up the entire area. Preliminary examinations have suggested liver-like function activity within the layer of yellow granules.
基金Support for this study was provided by grants from the NSFC-Yunnan joint fund to support key projects(U1602266)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31670322)the Young Academic and Technical Leader Raising Foundation of Yunnan Province(2015HB091)to G.Chen
文摘Vespicochory, seed dispersal by hornets, is a rare seed dispersal mechanism in angiosperms and, to date, there are few records of this phenomenon.Through field investigations and behavioral assays conducted in four populations of Stemona tuberosa from 2011–2016, we demonstrate that hornets are the primary seed dispersers of S. tuberosa and play an important role in "long-distance" seed dispersal in this species. Furthermore, some ant species act as secondary dispersers and may transport the seeds to safe sites.Hornets and ants provide complementary seed dispersal at different spatial scales. This unique example of insect-plant mutualism may be an underestimated but important strategy to ensure "long-distance" seed dispersal in other myrmecochorous plants.
文摘Vespa velutina is an invasive hornet species that is colonising Europe,generating considerable impacts on honeybees,beekeeping and biodiversity.Control and early warning strategies for this species are mainly based on monitoring plans and procedures of nest detection and destruction.Technological tools(harmonic radar,radio-telemetry)have been developed to increase the probabilities of nest detection in new outbreaks.Since hornets are able to regulate nest temperature,thermography may represent an additional technique that may be used,both alone or in support to other techniques.In this study,the viability of thermal imaging in detecting nests of V.velutina was evaluated in controlled conditions.The influence of different environmental and operative variables(time of the day,presence/absence of leaves covering the nest,distance between the nest and the operator)were tested on three nests detected during August 2018 in Italy.All the nests were detectable by thermal imaging,but environmental and operative variables affect their detectability.The temperature difference between the nests and the surrounding reaches its maximum before sunrise and without a tree canopy covering the nests.Although nests were visible in some cases from 30 m,the detectability was higher at shorter distances,even if this variable may also depend on infrared camera resolution.An increase in the environmental temperature also generates a decrease of nest detectability.Although some limitations could occur,these results show the applicability of thermography in detecting V velutina nests before the beginning of the reproductive phase,and consequently its potentiality in control strategies.
文摘An improved unslotted CSMA/CA MAC scheme of HORNET based on the node structure with variable optical buffer is reported. It can be used for transmitting high effectively all variable IP packets in the WDM network.
文摘The Yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina , was accidentally introduced in France in 2004, and then spread rapidly through the French territory but also to adjacent European countries (Spain, Portugal, and Belgium). During summer and autumn, V. velutina workers hunt domestic honeybees, Apis mellifera, for feeding their larvae. The impact of this alien species is mainly economic, beekeepers experiencing heavy colony losses, but also ecological, V. velutina hunting other pollinators. In their year-round life cycle, nest initiation by single queen during spring is the critical stage. In invaded areas, spring queen trapping using food baits has been promoted by apicultural unions in order to limit V. velutina population expansion. The goals of this work were 1) to evaluate the yield of this method, 2) to identify appropriate sites for trapping, 3) to identify potential optimal climatic windows of capture, and 4) to quantify the impact on local entomofauna. Our results showed that water proximity enhances trapping but not beehives proximity, and that trapping is inefficient if average week temperatures are below 10°C. Although the trapping effect on biodiversity should be studied more carefully, spring queen trapping is highly questionable unless specific attractants could be proposed.
