Parameters influencing queen body mass and their importance as determined by machine learning in honey bees ( Apis melli
- PDF / 981,280 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 467.716 x 680.315 pts Page_size
- 3 Downloads / 136 Views
Original article
Parameters influencing queen body mass and their importance as determined by machine learning in honey bees (Apis mellifera carnica ) Janez PREŠERN , Maja Ivana SMODIŠ ŠKERL Department of Animal Production, Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, Hacquetova ulica 17, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia Received 3 January 2019 – Revised 8 July 2019 – Accepted 18 July 2019
Abstract – Most parameters describing queen bee quality are reflected in the queen’s body mass, which is in turn considered a robust measure and the best indicator of queen quality. State-of-the-art machine learning was used for the first time to jointly evaluate both biological and rearing parameters influencing queen body mass. Three different models were developed using different combinations of parameters. Regardless of the model composition, we achieved high precision of classification. The parameters “ovary mass” and “breeder” were the most important factors for model predictions. Differences in rearing practices and vegetation were masked by “breeder,” demonstrating the pitfall of this method. Separate analysis confirmed the importance of the time spent in the hive after mating and the phytogeographical region as an indirect indication of food sources. Rearing practices together with phytogeographical information are not enough to explain variation in queen body mass, yet they can contribute to the prediction of queen body mass if “breeder” is excluded from the model. queen body mass / parameter importance / machine learning
1. INTRODUCTION There is an ongoing debate as to what defines a good queen bee and which parameters should be taken into account at the time of purchase. However, the beekeeper who wishes to purchase queen bees has no technical means to assess most of these parameters. On the other hand, the majority of these parameters play a role to some degree in queen body mass (for review, see Hatjina et al. 2014; Amiri et al. 2017). Incidentally, queen body mass is also a parameter that seems easy to measure as it requires only a scale in the milligram range. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-019-00683-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Corresponding author: J. Prešern, [email protected] Manuscript editor: Marina Meixner
Body mass varies throughout the life of the queen: it decreases with time after hatching and increases again after mating (Skowronek et al. 2004). The initial decrease in body mass is understandable in light of the mating flight, which affects mating success (Hayworth et al. 2009). Greater body mass improved queens’ acceptance into another colony in Apis mellifera anatoliaca (Akyol et al. 2009). However, bioassays did not relate queens’ body mass to their attractiveness to the worker bees (Nelson and Gary 1983; subspecies not given). Different practices used in queen rearing play a role in defining body mass. For example, larval age at the time of grafting has an important role in the development o
Data Loading...
