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News from the Honey Bee Lab at NCBS
(National Centre for Biological Sciences - TIFR, Bangalore)
(National Centre for Biological Sciences - TIFR, Bangalore)
Jan 23 - 25, 2023
BACK AFTER 2 YEARS: Our NCBS Annual Talks (as an offline - in person meeting). It almost felt like a reawakening. NCBS might be a small institute but it contains a lot of great and more importantly diverse research. It reminded me why I enjoy working here.
BACK AFTER 2 YEARS: Our NCBS Annual Talks (as an offline - in person meeting). It almost felt like a reawakening. NCBS might be a small institute but it contains a lot of great and more importantly diverse research. It reminded me why I enjoy working here.
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Our lab presented 3 posters:
(1) Bharath "Orientation of nocturnal dances by individually identified Apis dorsata foragers, (2) Tiyasa Roy: Time as Memory: Interactions between the circadian clock and the mushroom bodies in honey bees, (3) Ashwin: Task-specific chemical signatures are an ancestral trait of honey bee species. Congrats to all the three, and a special applaus for Ashwin who won the best poster award in the category: Ecology and Evolution! 
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Nov 30, 2022
The phenomenal Shrihari Hegde climbing a coconut tree to mount a camera to videotape the dance behavior of an Apis dorsata colony. While climbing down, he was attacked and stung by a lot of A. dorsata workers. He thought that the colony was agitated by two honey buzzards flying close to the tree. Shrihari was not stung in the face because he wore a bee veil, and as he is quite immune against honey bee stings, he only had fewer for two days.
The phenomenal Shrihari Hegde climbing a coconut tree to mount a camera to videotape the dance behavior of an Apis dorsata colony. While climbing down, he was attacked and stung by a lot of A. dorsata workers. He thought that the colony was agitated by two honey buzzards flying close to the tree. Shrihari was not stung in the face because he wore a bee veil, and as he is quite immune against honey bee stings, he only had fewer for two days.
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Oct 9, 2022
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Sep 24, 2022
Martin, Johann, Thomas, and Johannes met at the 7th International Symposium on Biodiversity and Natural Heritage of the Himalaya in Erfurt, Germany. Martin presented a talk on our research on bumble bees in Arunachal Pradesh. Our first trip to AP is already 7 years ago (see 3 October 2015). Time flies.
Martin, Johann, Thomas, and Johannes met at the 7th International Symposium on Biodiversity and Natural Heritage of the Himalaya in Erfurt, Germany. Martin presented a talk on our research on bumble bees in Arunachal Pradesh. Our first trip to AP is already 7 years ago (see 3 October 2015). Time flies.
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Sep, 2022
Rajath presented his research on Apis dorsata in the urban landscape at the Ento22 of the Royal Entomological Society. In his talk he also reported about the results of our Google AI for Social Good funded project on "Exploring and managing human-bee conflict in the Asian cities using AI" Bangalore" performs in collaboration with Shrihari and Syed. Rajath, Shrihari and Syed roamed Bangalore with their bikes to estimate density and numbers of A. dorsata colonies for the first time for an Asian megacity. We to extend this research in the future and compare the life of A. dorsata colonies in urban and natural habitats. The Google AI4SG project is a collaboration with Smitha Krishnan (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) and Wei Guo and Sylvain Grison (University of Tokio). One of our goals is to develop an automated analysis of A. dorsata dances to study their foraging behavior in different environments. |
Aug, 2022 Colonies in Conflict has been selected for SEVEN Wildlife Film Festivals so far
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Honorable Mention” Jackson Wild Media Awards 2022
“Nominated” Van Lawick Conservation Award, Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 “Nominated” Independent Production Award, Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 “Official Selection” Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 “Official Selection” Matsalu Nature Film Festival 2022 “Official Selection” Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, NY “Official Selection” All Living Things Environmental Film Festival, India “Excellence” Nature Without Borders International Film Festival |
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July, 2022
After two years of Covid, big conferences start again to be in-person meetings. Sruthi (right) gave a talk about her comparative study of behavioral maturation in open and cavity nesting honey bees at the IUSSI conference in San Diego. There she met Ebi, who is now a post doc with Laurent Keller, and Supraja (in the middle), who is a PhD student in Takao Sasaki's lab at University of Georgia. Supraja was an intern in our lab working together with Ebi. We just got the print proofs of their agent-based modeling study: "Environment-dependent benefits of inter-individual variation in honey bee recruitment". Sachin, Smruti, and Carri were also at the meeting. |
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July 2, 2022 Smitha and Axel gave a talk on their Google AI funded project "Exploring and managing human-bee conflict in Bangalore" to the members of the Bangalore Apartments' Federation. |
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June, 2022
Manal received the Developing Neuroethology Award 2022 of the International Society for Neuroethology which provides travel support for ISN members from emerging and developing countries to attend and present their work at the International Congress of Neuroethology 2022 at Lisbon, Portugal. The text below was published in the ISN June newsletter.
Manal received the Developing Neuroethology Award 2022 of the International Society for Neuroethology which provides travel support for ISN members from emerging and developing countries to attend and present their work at the International Congress of Neuroethology 2022 at Lisbon, Portugal. The text below was published in the ISN June newsletter.
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June 29, 2022
Our online seminar series "Frontiers in Bee Behavior and Ecology" closed with a fascinating talk by Tom Seeley on his comparative studies on open and cavity nesting honey bee species from the 1980ies. Interestingly, his approach to investigate behavioral consequences of nesting behavior was inspired by a comparative behavioral study of two gull species that differ in nesting behavior (see: Cullen E. 1957. Adaptations in the kittiwake to cliff nesting. Ibis 99:275–302). Those who are interested to konw more about Tom Seeley should have a look at his autobiographical manuscript Remembrances of a honey bee biologists!
Our online seminar series "Frontiers in Bee Behavior and Ecology" closed with a fascinating talk by Tom Seeley on his comparative studies on open and cavity nesting honey bee species from the 1980ies. Interestingly, his approach to investigate behavioral consequences of nesting behavior was inspired by a comparative behavioral study of two gull species that differ in nesting behavior (see: Cullen E. 1957. Adaptations in the kittiwake to cliff nesting. Ibis 99:275–302). Those who are interested to konw more about Tom Seeley should have a look at his autobiographical manuscript Remembrances of a honey bee biologists!
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June 17-18, 2022 The Indian Pollinator Initiative (InPollin) held its second student summer colloquium at GKVK. Axel gave the lead talk on "Importance of honey bees for mechanistic behavior research". Rajath presented his study on Annual colony life cycle, Shrihari reported about our study on Apis dorsata colonies in Bangalore, and Bharath showed his data on the orientation of night dances in Apis dorsata. All talks were well received. |
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left to right: Deeptirmayee Dash, Gayatri Y, Charu Pandey, Pallabi Mukherjee, Sukrithi NV, Himani Dave.
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June, 2022
After two years of pandemic, this year we accepted summer student interns again. We always have quite a number of summer interns because their help allows us to do many behavioral experiments at the same time or it allows us to do some complicated experiments for which we need several assistants. This year, the students are involved in experiments on sleep and memory, experiments on dance behavior, and a pilot on temperature resistance in Asian honey bees. |
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May, 2022 Rajani Mani documentary movie COLONIES IN CONFLICT on Apis dorsata colonies and human-bee conflict in Bangalore will have its premiere on May 22nd at the Bangalore International Centre. After the screening there will be a Q&A session with Rajani and Axel. The film was invited for: Official Selection Nature Without Borders International Film Festival 2022 – to be held in July Official Selection Wildlife Conservation Film Festival 2022 – to be held in October |
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May 12, 2022
Arumoy successfully defended his PhD thesis today. Congratulations Dr. Arumoy. He gave a very good and enthusiastic (zoom) talk, which reminded Axel that there is still good stuff in his thesis that needs to be published! Arumoy studied how honey bee foragers update dance distance information. His experiments clearly show that generating dance information includes memory processes and there appear to be different (dissociable) memory contents that are used for navigation and dance. We have to admit that there are some earlier studies that suggested that, but his experiments now shoed it clearly. In a few months, June or July, Arumoy will leave the lab and start a postdoc position in Craig Montell's lab at UC Santa Barbara, where he will study the behavior of mosquitoes. (BTW, the photo shows him directly after the thesis seminar, smoking a cigarette and drinking a chai tea at the street stall in front of NCBS gate) |
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March 29, 2022
Aridni (wearing the honorable phantasy doctoral hat) received her PhD. She initiated our research on on molecular mechanisms underlying time memory in honey bee (i.e. Apis mellifera) foragers. We repeated behavioral experiments established more than 70 years ago in Karl von Frisch's lab but then collected these foragers and performed gene expression studies on these time-trained foragers. Using anesthesia manipulation experiments, Aridni could show that the expression of our candidate gene is regulated by the circadian clock. We still have to publish these experiments. Aridni already left academia and founded a start up on antibody design. The research on time memory will be continued by Tiyasa (yellow dress), and In the background you see Aridni's husband Rajeev. |
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March 26, 2022
Dhruba Naug (Colorado State University) received a Fullbright-Nehru Fellowship to work on Asian honey bees at NCBS. He arrived early January shortly before the Omicron wave. During the lock down he was studying worker metabolic rates for A. florea, A. cerana, A. dorsata on campus. This week he and Prabhu travelled to Uttarakhand to measure the worker metabolic rates for the same species and A. laboriosa. The question is whether workers of southern and northern honey bee populations may differ in their metabolic rate. (in the picture Dhruba is adjusting the respirometer, and his local guide, Triloc, is holding the bee and observing Dhruba, Prabhu took the photo.) 
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March 18, 2022 Happy Holi ! As part of the Brain Awarnesss Week, NCBS communication office published today a little report "Remembering those times" by Tiyasa about her research on molecular underpinnings of time-place memory in honey bees. Based on Aridni's work (see Shah et al., 2018), Tiyasa established a protocol to extract RNA from a subpopulation of mushroom body Kenyon cells using laser-capture-microdissections. There are two questions: (1.) which genes show expresspion changes associated with the time-of-training, and (2.) do some of the cells might express major circadian clock genes. We hope to have the RNAseq data in a few months. |
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March, 2022
Christoph Grueter (University of Bristol) and Axel have put together an online seminar series "Frontiers in Bee Behavior and Ecology" starting April 4th, 2002. There are two major goals: 1. bridging the gap of communication between bee ecologists and mechanistic bee researchers, and 2. using the online format to provide Asian students the opportunity to attend talks by young bee researchers from the Western part of the world, which hardly visit Asia. In India the seminar series is part of the activties of the Indian Pollinator Initiative (InPollin) You can register for the seminar series here: Frontiers in Bee Behavior and Ecology You can find updated news on the seminar series on our twitter account. For those that have missed a talk, they can watch it on our YouTube Channel |
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January 29, 2022
Congratulations to Nyaton and Gard for their great and comprehensive talk on the diversity and taxonomy of the giant honey bees! We are looking forward to the manuscript! Their talk "Diversity within the Giant Honey Bees (Apis, subgenus Megapis)" is now available on youtube. |
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January 2022
A happy and HEALTHY New Year to all!
For our lab, the year already starts with a nice recognition. Nyaton and Gard were invited to talk about our research on Apis laboriosa and Apis dorsata at the online seminar series: BEE Biogeography and Systematics Talks - BEEST, organized by Laurence Packer.
Congratulations Nyation and Gard!
A happy and HEALTHY New Year to all!
For our lab, the year already starts with a nice recognition. Nyaton and Gard were invited to talk about our research on Apis laboriosa and Apis dorsata at the online seminar series: BEE Biogeography and Systematics Talks - BEEST, organized by Laurence Packer.
Congratulations Nyation and Gard!
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December 20, 2021 These days we continue our observations and experiments on the dances of Apis dorsata during moon-lit nights. Bharath Krishnan, a master student from the Agricultural University GKVK, and Rajath now train foragers to a feeder and record dances of individually marked bees during the twilight and the night. A few years ago we started we started the project in collaboration with Allison Young and Fed Dyer (see Young, Kodabalagi, Brockmann, Dyer, 2021). The question is how the (sun) compass system works when there is no sun. Photo by Rajath |
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December 2021 Manal is one of the four junior scientists of the newly founded SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM of the International Society of Neuroethology. Of course, we hope that once she will also tweed about some of our experiments and papers. |
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November 2021 ShriHari Hedge joined the Google AI group studying Apis dorsata colonies in Bangalore. On the right you see Shrihari harvesting an Apis cerana colony in the forests of the Western Ghats. Bare food, no vail needed. Just skill and calmness. |
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October 2021 Everyone is looking forward to the festive season to celebrate with their families. We already celebrate that Aridni and Arumoy have submitted their theses and now "just" need to wait for the reviews. Both hope that this process will be smooth. Aridni is already busy with her start up company ImmunitoAI, and Arumoy already accepted an offer to join Craig Montell's lab at UC Santa Barbara in June next year, where he will work on mosquito behavior. Also, Allison's paper on diurnal and nocturnal foraging activity of Apis dorsata got out (see publications). Allison recently joined Claire Rittschof's lab as a postdoc. Congratulation Allison! |
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September 2021 We are very proud of Aridni (right), who founded a start up company together with Trisha Catterjee (left). ImmunitoAI plans to established better and faster ways to discover new antibodies using AI. The company is suported by seed funding from pi Ventures. (Aridni started all this in the last last year parallel to finishing her PhD thesis, which she submitted a few days ago.) |
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August 2021
Work in the lab and in the field has restarted. Deepika and Tiyasa checked their colonies. Deepika develops a method to detect ecdysone in honey bee brains and Tiyasa will identify cycling genes in the mushroom bodies. Jaya, her brother Biray, and Karsing toured the Himalayas to collect (sleeping) bumble bees.
Work in the lab and in the field has restarted. Deepika and Tiyasa checked their colonies. Deepika develops a method to detect ecdysone in honey bee brains and Tiyasa will identify cycling genes in the mushroom bodies. Jaya, her brother Biray, and Karsing toured the Himalayas to collect (sleeping) bumble bees.
July 2021
Google's initiative AI for Social Good
supports our project Exploring and Managing human-bee conflict in Asian cities using AI. The project is headed by Smitha Krishnan (Bioversity International), Wei Guo (University of Tokyo) , and Axel and Rajath from our lab. The project will focus on studying Apis dorsata colonies in Bangalore. Questions are: what is the populations size of A. dorsata colonies in Bangalore? How many colonies get eradicated by pest management companies? Do A. dorsata nesting sites characterized by specific habitat features? Where do A. dorsata colonies migrate to during the monsoon? Data of the project as well as other information about A. dorsata colonies will be made available on a website. We also plan to use the website to communicate with the public.
Google's initiative AI for Social Good
supports our project Exploring and Managing human-bee conflict in Asian cities using AI. The project is headed by Smitha Krishnan (Bioversity International), Wei Guo (University of Tokyo) , and Axel and Rajath from our lab. The project will focus on studying Apis dorsata colonies in Bangalore. Questions are: what is the populations size of A. dorsata colonies in Bangalore? How many colonies get eradicated by pest management companies? Do A. dorsata nesting sites characterized by specific habitat features? Where do A. dorsata colonies migrate to during the monsoon? Data of the project as well as other information about A. dorsata colonies will be made available on a website. We also plan to use the website to communicate with the public.
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May 8, 2021
Indian Pollinator Initiative Web site launch Dear friends, We are pleased to announce the launch of the web site for the Indian Pollinator Initiative. We request you to kindly register as a member of the initiative using the online form in the website. Parthib Basu, Hema Somanathan, Smitha Krishnan, Axel Brockmann, V.V. Belavadi, Joby Joseph, Palatty Sinu |
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March 8, 2021
Happy International Women's Day "We're celebrating women who have changed the world. Here's all of the amazing women who have received the #NobelPrize and their remarkable achievements at the time of the award." Sruthi hasn't received the Nobel Prize yet and may not receive it because it is very difficult for a behavioral biologist to received that honour. However, we think she is already an exceptional and nice role model for all the undergraduate female students interested in the study of animal behavior. Please read her interview about her research and what she likes about it published in the Journal Insectes Sociaux. |
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January 12, 2021
Pollinators in the Urban Age - Living with wild giant honey bees in the Indian megacity Sebastian Walter and Axel wrote an essay for the German Heinrich Boell Stifting (India). |
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January 09, 2021
A good start into the New Year for the Lab: Sruthi won the best poster award of this years Annual Talks in the category "Ecology and Evolution" with her presentation on: "Behavioral maturation in Asian honey bees" ! Congratulations Sruthi!
A good start into the New Year for the Lab: Sruthi won the best poster award of this years Annual Talks in the category "Ecology and Evolution" with her presentation on: "Behavioral maturation in Asian honey bees" ! Congratulations Sruthi!
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December 31, 2020
Everyone is hoping for the New Year. We pushed in the last two weeks to get two manuscripts from our desks - one on differences in the odometer of Asian honey bee species and one on neuromodulator systems in search behavior (bioRxiv, see Publications) - to get ready for the New Year ahead. Below two other ways to welcome the New Year, independent of whether you are in Kolkata, Konstanz or anywhere else.
Everyone is hoping for the New Year. We pushed in the last two weeks to get two manuscripts from our desks - one on differences in the odometer of Asian honey bee species and one on neuromodulator systems in search behavior (bioRxiv, see Publications) - to get ready for the New Year ahead. Below two other ways to welcome the New Year, independent of whether you are in Kolkata, Konstanz or anywhere else.
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December, 2020 Life 1 year after finishing PhD at NCBS
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Hema in Amsterdam, Divya in Konstanz, and Rikesh in Marseille All continuing in Science - the pictures are missleading (at least I hope)
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November 14th, 2020 There is a light, Karthika!
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September 4th, 2020 First talk in the Indian Pollinator Initiative - Online Seminar series
Today we had a nice start of our seminar series with Alyssa Stewart's great talk on "Pollinators in Thailand: from Bats to Bees". Those who missed the talk can still watch it on Youtube.
And here, the complete list of the following talks:
(Any update regarding talks and activities will be posted to at Twitter@IndiaPolinator )
Friday Sept. 04th (5pm IST)
Pollinators in Thailand: From Bats to Bees
Dr. Alyssa Steward (Mahidol University, Thailand)
Friday Sept 11th (5pm IST)
Himalayan bumblebees - what we know and what we need to know
Dr. Paul Williams (The Natural History Museum, UK)
Friday Sept 18th (! 6pm IST)
Mutually beneficial pollinator diversity and crop yield outcomes
Prof. Lucas A. Garibaldi (Universidad Nacional de Ro Negro, Argentina)
Friday Sept 25th (5pm IST)
Role of leaves in conserving pollinators!
Prof. Paletty Alesh Sinu (Central University of Kerala, India)
Friday Oct 2nd (6:30pm IST)
Phylogeny of Apis species and the honey bees of India
Prof. Deborah Smith (Kansas University, USA)
Friday Oct 9th (6:30pm IST)
Supporting pollinator biodiversity through transdisciplinary programs
Prof. Christina Grozinger (Center for Pollinator Research, Penn State, USA)
Friday Oct 16th (5pm IST)
Averting the Insect Apocalypse
Prof. Dave Goulson (University of Sussex, UK)
Friday Oct 23th (5pm IST)
Land use change and insect pollinators: Impact and Future Trajectory
Prof. Damayanti Buchori (CTSS, IPB University, Indonesia)
Friday Oct 30th (5pm IST)
Gene reuse facilitates rapid radiation and independent adaptation to diverse habitats in the Asian honeybee
Prof. Xin Zhou (China Agricultural University, China)
Friday Nov 6th (5pm IST)
Panel Discussion
The Future of Pollinator Research in Asia
And here, the complete list of the following talks:
(Any update regarding talks and activities will be posted to at Twitter@IndiaPolinator )
Friday Sept. 04th (5pm IST)
Pollinators in Thailand: From Bats to Bees
Dr. Alyssa Steward (Mahidol University, Thailand)
Friday Sept 11th (5pm IST)
Himalayan bumblebees - what we know and what we need to know
Dr. Paul Williams (The Natural History Museum, UK)
Friday Sept 18th (! 6pm IST)
Mutually beneficial pollinator diversity and crop yield outcomes
Prof. Lucas A. Garibaldi (Universidad Nacional de Ro Negro, Argentina)
Friday Sept 25th (5pm IST)
Role of leaves in conserving pollinators!
Prof. Paletty Alesh Sinu (Central University of Kerala, India)
Friday Oct 2nd (6:30pm IST)
Phylogeny of Apis species and the honey bees of India
Prof. Deborah Smith (Kansas University, USA)
Friday Oct 9th (6:30pm IST)
Supporting pollinator biodiversity through transdisciplinary programs
Prof. Christina Grozinger (Center for Pollinator Research, Penn State, USA)
Friday Oct 16th (5pm IST)
Averting the Insect Apocalypse
Prof. Dave Goulson (University of Sussex, UK)
Friday Oct 23th (5pm IST)
Land use change and insect pollinators: Impact and Future Trajectory
Prof. Damayanti Buchori (CTSS, IPB University, Indonesia)
Friday Oct 30th (5pm IST)
Gene reuse facilitates rapid radiation and independent adaptation to diverse habitats in the Asian honeybee
Prof. Xin Zhou (China Agricultural University, China)
Friday Nov 6th (5pm IST)
Panel Discussion
The Future of Pollinator Research in Asia
End of June, 2020
A short update: NCBS restarted activities (30% or so) some weeks ago. So some of us also did some experiments, but most are of us are still at the home front analyzing experimental data and writing manuscripts and theses (see our publication page).
The Monsoon - not in home office - started with some rains and A. dorsata colonies get ready to migrate. I think no one really knows where they migrate to and whether still some colonies just stay in the city. The left photo (by Sharada Nair) shows an A. dorsata swarm just settling down at a balcony in northern Bangalore on June 24th. Sharada decided to keep the colony and observe how long the colony will stay. By the way a swarm is an auspicious sign (at least for bee keepers).
A few day later we had a virtual edition of our famous lab parties (right photo)
A short update: NCBS restarted activities (30% or so) some weeks ago. So some of us also did some experiments, but most are of us are still at the home front analyzing experimental data and writing manuscripts and theses (see our publication page).
The Monsoon - not in home office - started with some rains and A. dorsata colonies get ready to migrate. I think no one really knows where they migrate to and whether still some colonies just stay in the city. The left photo (by Sharada Nair) shows an A. dorsata swarm just settling down at a balcony in northern Bangalore on June 24th. Sharada decided to keep the colony and observe how long the colony will stay. By the way a swarm is an auspicious sign (at least for bee keepers).
A few day later we had a virtual edition of our famous lab parties (right photo)
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Science Cafe with Axel on World Bee Day 20th May
On the occasion of the UN World Bee Day, Axel and the documentary movie maker, Ranjani Mani, had a video-streamed conversation on bees in India at the BLiSC SCIENCE CAFE on Wednesday 20th at 5pm. Everyone is welcome to join. One of the goals of the UN World Bee Day is: "Recognizing the fundamental role and contribution of bees and other pollinators with respect to sustainable food production and nutrition, which thereby promote food security for the world’s growing population and contribute to poverty alleviation, hunger eradication and human health,..." |
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March, 2020
This is a new picture of Axel. At the pollinator meeting one of the students told him that he expected a younger person, because of the other photos of the webpage. Well..... In the meantime, he fractured his left elbow and we all started wearing masks when we go public. We also started having lab meeting using zoom. Of course, we have to admit that this is life of privileged people . Although, we have stopped doing experiments, we are continuing our work. Research on the biology and conservation of honey bees is and will be important for the future. |
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Meeting of Pollinator Researchers in Asia 27-29th February 2020 Venue: Centre for Pollination Studies, University of Calcutta For more information and registration visit the meeting website AsianPollinator Organizer: Parthib Basu (Universsity of Calcutta), Axel Brockmann (NCBS), and V. Belavadi (UAS-GKVK) |
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Februar 18, 2020
The fourth musketeer: Rikesh Jain D'Artagan On Feb. 18, 2020 Rikesh hold his thesis defense at SASTRA University. For this he flew in from his new residence in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. A week later he returned to Marseille to start a post doc position at the CENTURI - Turing Centre for Living Systems and IBDM – Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille where he studies gene expression in bacteria. By the way during his farewell party he told me that he just played soccer the first year in my lab... we honored his achievement with a lot of shots. Photo (from left) |
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September - December, 2019
Three strikes in one sweep
Well.... The first three PhDs (from left to right): Divya (26/09/2019), Ebi (11/10/2019), and Hema (16/12/2019).
Sebastian, the Sturm, (and not me) introduced the German tradition that the awardees get honored with a custom-made top hat, I took care of the Sekt (sparkling wine).
Divya already left and started a German "Assistentenstelle" (something in-between a post doc and an assistant professor position) with Christoph Kleineidam at the University of Konstanz Germany. Ebi received a short-term fellowship at the Zukunftkolleg (Institute for Advanced Study for Junior Researchers) of the University of Konstanz working with Morgane Nouvian and Anja Weidenmueller. Hema is applying for post doc positions.
University of Konstanz with its Cluster of Excellence "Centre for Advanced Study in Collective Behaviour" and the MPI of Animal Behavior is a place to go to in the next decade.
Three strikes in one sweep
Well.... The first three PhDs (from left to right): Divya (26/09/2019), Ebi (11/10/2019), and Hema (16/12/2019).
Sebastian, the Sturm, (and not me) introduced the German tradition that the awardees get honored with a custom-made top hat, I took care of the Sekt (sparkling wine).
Divya already left and started a German "Assistentenstelle" (something in-between a post doc and an assistant professor position) with Christoph Kleineidam at the University of Konstanz Germany. Ebi received a short-term fellowship at the Zukunftkolleg (Institute for Advanced Study for Junior Researchers) of the University of Konstanz working with Morgane Nouvian and Anja Weidenmueller. Hema is applying for post doc positions.
University of Konstanz with its Cluster of Excellence "Centre for Advanced Study in Collective Behaviour" and the MPI of Animal Behavior is a place to go to in the next decade.
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August, 2019
Colonies in Conflict -- A documentary movie project on the giant honey bee by Rajani Mani
The giant honey bee, Apis dorsata (common name Rock Bee) is likely one of the most important honey bee pollinators in tropical Asia. Growing megacities not only disturb their natural habitat, but also provide them with attractive nesting sites: balconies on high raised buildings. Instead of conserving pollinator abundance it is common practise in cities like Bangalore to kill giant honey bee colonies with poison.
In the movie Rajani Mani will describe the live of giant honey bees and the life of people interacting with the bees.
Our lab supports the projects and Axel helps as a science adviser. We hope that the movie will have an impact on changing the public view on the giant honey bees. It is time to take care of the Rock Bee.
Have a look at the trailer, it is great. And if you you like the project, please support it.
Colonies in Conflict -- A documentary movie project on the giant honey bee by Rajani Mani
The giant honey bee, Apis dorsata (common name Rock Bee) is likely one of the most important honey bee pollinators in tropical Asia. Growing megacities not only disturb their natural habitat, but also provide them with attractive nesting sites: balconies on high raised buildings. Instead of conserving pollinator abundance it is common practise in cities like Bangalore to kill giant honey bee colonies with poison.
In the movie Rajani Mani will describe the live of giant honey bees and the life of people interacting with the bees.
Our lab supports the projects and Axel helps as a science adviser. We hope that the movie will have an impact on changing the public view on the giant honey bees. It is time to take care of the Rock Bee.
Have a look at the trailer, it is great. And if you you like the project, please support it.
August, 2019
Vacation Time = Conference Time
Arumoy and Manal went to the GRC Neuroethology which had several session on locomotion and navigation. At the accompaniying GRC they met Gene. Sruthi gave a talk at the Animal Behavior conference in Chicago. Later this month, Ebi will attend the Summer Course at the MPI for Collective Behavior in Konstanz, Germany.
Vacation Time = Conference Time
Arumoy and Manal went to the GRC Neuroethology which had several session on locomotion and navigation. At the accompaniying GRC they met Gene. Sruthi gave a talk at the Animal Behavior conference in Chicago. Later this month, Ebi will attend the Summer Course at the MPI for Collective Behavior in Konstanz, Germany.
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The NCBS group at GRC Neuroethology (rom left to right): Pavan Kumar Kaushik (NICE LAB, NCBS), Tuhin Chakraborty (University of Michigan, alumni of Obaid's lab), Arumoy, Sanjay (NCBS), Subhasis Ray (NIH/NICHD, alumni of Upi's lab), Madhumala K Sadanandappa (Darthmouth, alumni of Vijay's lab), and Manal. Photo below: Sruthi giving her talk at the Animal Behavior meeting at Chicago.
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June 17-19, 2019
Axel gave a talk in AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) Workshop on Insect Multisensory Integration, hosted at NCBS. Arumoy and Manal presented posters discussing their work.
Axel gave a talk in AFOSR (Air Force Office of Scientific Research) Workshop on Insect Multisensory Integration, hosted at NCBS. Arumoy and Manal presented posters discussing their work.
May 12-31, 2019
Aridni visited Dr. James Cheeseman's lab at the University of Auckland for two weeks. She got trained in the technique of inducing anaesthesia in a group of bees as well as the whole colony. She now established this technique in our lab.
At the end of her trip, she visited Paul Szyszka's lab at the University of Otago in Dunedin.
The bee colony that Aridni worked with - is an Apis mellifera mixed colony with A.mellifera ligustica (yellow) and A.mellifera carnica (black): a common sight in New Zealand.
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(L-R) Jenny, Aridni and Paul in Jenny's office
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March 26-28, 2019
Hema, Prabhu and Axel attended the 66. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Institute für Bienenforschung A.G. which was held at the University of Frankfurt and organised by the famous Oberursel Bee Research Institute which was once headed by Friedrich Ruttner author of Biogeography and Taxonomy of Honeybees. Prabhu and Axel met with Stefan Fuchs who currently curates the Oberursel collection.
At the meeting Prabhu presented a poster about Nyaton's and his data on Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa (see photo) Hema presented a poster on her studies on the behavioural maturation of A. florea. And Patrick gave a talk about his experiments on dialects in dance communication in A. florea, A. cerana, and A. dorsata.
Hema, Prabhu and Axel attended the 66. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Institute für Bienenforschung A.G. which was held at the University of Frankfurt and organised by the famous Oberursel Bee Research Institute which was once headed by Friedrich Ruttner author of Biogeography and Taxonomy of Honeybees. Prabhu and Axel met with Stefan Fuchs who currently curates the Oberursel collection.
At the meeting Prabhu presented a poster about Nyaton's and his data on Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa (see photo) Hema presented a poster on her studies on the behavioural maturation of A. florea. And Patrick gave a talk about his experiments on dialects in dance communication in A. florea, A. cerana, and A. dorsata.
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March 20, 2019
Asian honey bee expert Gard Otis (University of Guelph) visited our lab again. As part of our collaboration on the Giant Honey Bees he allocated some specimen of his private collection to our bee collection at the NCBS collection facility. Nyaton, Karsing and Gard then did a field trip in Arunachal Pradesh to revisit already known and find new nesting sites of Apis laboriosa. Most importantly we found areas in Arunachal Pradesh where Apis laboriosa and Apis dorsata appear to overlap. (Photo, from left to right: Dr. Karsing Megu, Prof. Jharna Chakravorty, Prof. Saket Kushwaha - Vice Chancellor of RGU, Prof. Gard Otis, Nyaton Kitnya) |
March 01-02, 2019
We Need to Save the Bees – but Where Do We Begin?
Manal wrote a report about the 2nd Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees with statements of some of the key speakers on pollination, necessity of bee conservation, and the need for more research to sustain pollination depending food security. In this edition, we had bee researchers from China, India, Nepal, Singapore and Thailand.
Manal wrote a report about the 2nd Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees with statements of some of the key speakers on pollination, necessity of bee conservation, and the need for more research to sustain pollination depending food security. In this edition, we had bee researchers from China, India, Nepal, Singapore and Thailand.
February 28, 2019 Listen to Swastika and her work! (in 10 seconds)
For National Science Day, Swastika gave a succinct description of her interests and her work in the honey bee lab.
For National Science Day, Swastika gave a succinct description of her interests and her work in the honey bee lab.
February 11, 2019 International Day of Woman and Girls in Science
The women in our lab outnumber the men!
Manal, Swastika, Allison, Aridni, Nyaton, Catherine, Divya, Sruthi, Sukrita, Jaya, Ranjana (from left to right bottom photo), Gagana and Deepika (upper photo: first on the left, and Deepika sits to the left). Hema, Siddhi and Anjana are missing in the photos.
The women in our lab outnumber the men!
Manal, Swastika, Allison, Aridni, Nyaton, Catherine, Divya, Sruthi, Sukrita, Jaya, Ranjana (from left to right bottom photo), Gagana and Deepika (upper photo: first on the left, and Deepika sits to the left). Hema, Siddhi and Anjana are missing in the photos.
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February 07, 2019 We are happy to announce that we will hold the 2nd Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees on March 01-02, 2019. The world-wide decline of pollinators important for human food security calls for a joined initiative. However, the problems in India and the Asian tropics are different from those in the West. One of the major goals of this meeting is to bring together bee and pollination researchers from India to discuss problems and future initiatives. We think it is time to join forces. The meeting is organised by Prof. Belavadi (UAS-GKVK ), Dr. Hema Somanathan (IISER Trivandrum), Dr. John S. Ascher (NUS Singapore), and Axel (NCBS). |
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February 05, 2019 Congratulations Sruthi! Sruthi received the SERB National Post-Doctoral Fellowship to study behavioral maturation in the three Asian honey bee species, A. florea, A. dorsata, and A. cerana. We are determined to increase our efforts to study the biology and behaviour of Asian honey bees. |
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January 21-23, 2019
NCBS Annual Talks: Same procedure as every year. This year Sruthi, Manal, and Prabhu and Nyaton showed posters about their work, while Axel gave a talk. Manal (in the middle) presented her work on the sugar-elicited search behavior in Drosophila. Sruthi (left) showed her first data on behavioural maturation in Apis cerana. Prabhu and Nyaton (right) presented their work on the diversity of Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa along the Himalayas.
NCBS Annual Talks: Same procedure as every year. This year Sruthi, Manal, and Prabhu and Nyaton showed posters about their work, while Axel gave a talk. Manal (in the middle) presented her work on the sugar-elicited search behavior in Drosophila. Sruthi (left) showed her first data on behavioural maturation in Apis cerana. Prabhu and Nyaton (right) presented their work on the diversity of Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa along the Himalayas.
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January 10, 2019
Aridni received a travel grant from The Company of Biologists to visit James Cheeseman's lab at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Aridni will learn how to anaesthetise groups of bees to test whether the circadian clock regulates Egr-1 expression in the honey bee brain. We hope to establish a long term collaboration with James. |
November 16, 2018 Science Day at NCBS
Our lab introduced the visitors to the giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, which the people here call the Rock Bee. The Rock Bee is capable to fly and forage during full-moon nights. And they all perform night dances (see PC monitor). Allison Young from the University of Michigan (see photo) and Sangamesh Kolavi study these dances that are unique among all honey bee species.
Our lab introduced the visitors to the giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, which the people here call the Rock Bee. The Rock Bee is capable to fly and forage during full-moon nights. And they all perform night dances (see PC monitor). Allison Young from the University of Michigan (see photo) and Sangamesh Kolavi study these dances that are unique among all honey bee species.
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October 21-31, 2018
Manal at Janelia Farm (see photo on the right) First, Manal got selected to participate in the Junior Scientist Workshop on Mechanistic Cognitive Neuroscience , and then she also got invited to the Janelia Farm meeting on Structure and Function of the Insect Central Complex. We are eagerly awaiting her return and report. |
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October 2018
Aridni visited Charlotte Foerster's lab to perform immunohistochemical studies on time-trained honey bee foragers. She collaborated with Katharina Beer. During her visit she stayed with Patrick, Fabienne and Benjamin.
Aridni visited Charlotte Foerster's lab to perform immunohistochemical studies on time-trained honey bee foragers. She collaborated with Katharina Beer. During her visit she stayed with Patrick, Fabienne and Benjamin.
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October 15, 2018 A few days ago, we uploaded our manuscript on bumble bee species in Arunachal Pradesh to the bioRxiv pre-print server. "Species composition and altitudinal distribution of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) in the East Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, India." Our collected specimen are stored at the NCBS Collection Facility. Of course, we are proud that this is a unique collection world-wide. |
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October 06, 2018
Yesterday was Moth Day. We used the chance to collect data for Sebastian Walter's study on the depiction of insects. We asked people to draw an ant, a beetle, a fly, and a spider. Sebastian did the same questionnaire in Germany and wants to test whether there are cultural differences in the ideas about insects. |
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June 15-16, 2018
Laurence Packer (the boss) visited our colleagues at the Agricultural University, where he gave the 5th Coleman Lecture: "Bees: Importance and Diversity". We had nice discussions with him and a very enjoyable dinner.
However, the important take home message was that we need to increase our research efforts to first identify the bee diversity in India and then increase our efforts to maintain this diversity. Krushnamegh's and my students now will collect bees on their field trips and we hope to establish a bee collection at NCBS. (A nice follow up of our Asian Bee Meeting at the beginning of this year.) And do not forget to visit Laurence's webpage.
Laurence Packer (the boss) visited our colleagues at the Agricultural University, where he gave the 5th Coleman Lecture: "Bees: Importance and Diversity". We had nice discussions with him and a very enjoyable dinner.
However, the important take home message was that we need to increase our research efforts to first identify the bee diversity in India and then increase our efforts to maintain this diversity. Krushnamegh's and my students now will collect bees on their field trips and we hope to establish a bee collection at NCBS. (A nice follow up of our Asian Bee Meeting at the beginning of this year.) And do not forget to visit Laurence's webpage.
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May 14, 2018
Aridni and Snehal visited Gene Robinson's lab at University of Illinois. They had lots of inspiring discussions with the people from Gene's lab (Ian Traniello, Zenqing Chen). The lab is currently establishing single cell transcriptomics and CRISPR. Aridni also sent Axel a photo of a machine she wants him to buy for her.
In the background you see the window front of "Espresso Royal", which is the equivalent to "Roy's cafe" at NCBS (or vice versa).
Aridni and Snehal visited Gene Robinson's lab at University of Illinois. They had lots of inspiring discussions with the people from Gene's lab (Ian Traniello, Zenqing Chen). The lab is currently establishing single cell transcriptomics and CRISPR. Aridni also sent Axel a photo of a machine she wants him to buy for her.
In the background you see the window front of "Espresso Royal", which is the equivalent to "Roy's cafe" at NCBS (or vice versa).
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May 08, 2018
Ebi is on The Grand Tour in Europe. His first stop was the Conference on Collective Behavior at the ICTP in Trieste.
He presented a poster on his behavioural experiments and modelling on individual variability in dance activity and its social regulation by interaction with nest mates.
Ebi is on The Grand Tour in Europe. His first stop was the Conference on Collective Behavior at the ICTP in Trieste.
He presented a poster on his behavioural experiments and modelling on individual variability in dance activity and its social regulation by interaction with nest mates.
May 08, 2018
Girl Power in Watson-Country: Aridni and Snehal (Prof. Sowdhamini lab) attended the Biology & Genomics of Social Insect meeting at Cold Spring Habor Laboratories. Aridni (left photo) gave a talk on her work on time-memories and Egr-1 expression in honey bee brains. Snehal presented a poster on her computational studies on changes in olfactory receptor families associated with the evolution of sociality in bees.
Girl Power in Watson-Country: Aridni and Snehal (Prof. Sowdhamini lab) attended the Biology & Genomics of Social Insect meeting at Cold Spring Habor Laboratories. Aridni (left photo) gave a talk on her work on time-memories and Egr-1 expression in honey bee brains. Snehal presented a poster on her computational studies on changes in olfactory receptor families associated with the evolution of sociality in bees.
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Visitor of the Week: Aridni Shah Aridni was also selected as "Visitor of the Week" by the Cold Spring Habor Meetings Blog. They published a nice short interview with Aridni. |
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March 23, 2018
We had a joined lab meeting with Hema Somanathan's lab from IISER Trivandrum. Both labs work on honey bees but with different research questions. Hema's lab is more interested in questions of behavioural ecology, whereas we are more interested in proximate mechanisms of behavior. So, that was a good match! Hema and I agreed to continue such meetings and invite other Indian bee labs to join in and in the long run to establish a community of bee research lab in India.
We had a joined lab meeting with Hema Somanathan's lab from IISER Trivandrum. Both labs work on honey bees but with different research questions. Hema's lab is more interested in questions of behavioural ecology, whereas we are more interested in proximate mechanisms of behavior. So, that was a good match! Hema and I agreed to continue such meetings and invite other Indian bee labs to join in and in the long run to establish a community of bee research lab in India.
March 09, 2018
The real initiation of Apis dorsata research in our lab. Fred Dyer showed us how to collect a dorsata colony and set up in a box so that we can observe it from close distance. Certainly a milestone.
The real initiation of Apis dorsata research in our lab. Fred Dyer showed us how to collect a dorsata colony and set up in a box so that we can observe it from close distance. Certainly a milestone.
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February 20, 2018
Arumoy's manuscript "Making honey bees lie: experimental dissociation of flight experience and dance communication" is available on the biorxiv.org pre-print server for Biology.
Arumoy's manuscript "Making honey bees lie: experimental dissociation of flight experience and dance communication" is available on the biorxiv.org pre-print server for Biology.
February, 2018
We are proud to announce the inauguration of the BUMBLE BEE and HONEY BEE COLLECTION at the NCBS collection facility. Over the last years we did three field trips in Arunachal Pradesh to map bumble bee and honey bee species. Before our trips 8 bumble bee species had been recorded for Arunachal Pradesh, now we increased the number bumble bee species observed in Arunachal to 21! Needless to say that our collection is unique for India and the World!
The collection is part of the North-East Program and is headed by Axel and Prof. Jharna Chakravorty (RG University). The work could not have been done without the help from our foreign colleagues, Johannes Spaethe, Martin Streinzer, and Johann Neumayer, who are experts on mountain bumble bees.
The photo on the right shows Martin Streinzer, Johannes Spaethe, and two students of Jharna Chakravorty, Karsing Megu and Jaya Narah (from back to front).
We are proud to announce the inauguration of the BUMBLE BEE and HONEY BEE COLLECTION at the NCBS collection facility. Over the last years we did three field trips in Arunachal Pradesh to map bumble bee and honey bee species. Before our trips 8 bumble bee species had been recorded for Arunachal Pradesh, now we increased the number bumble bee species observed in Arunachal to 21! Needless to say that our collection is unique for India and the World!
The collection is part of the North-East Program and is headed by Axel and Prof. Jharna Chakravorty (RG University). The work could not have been done without the help from our foreign colleagues, Johannes Spaethe, Martin Streinzer, and Johann Neumayer, who are experts on mountain bumble bees.
The photo on the right shows Martin Streinzer, Johannes Spaethe, and two students of Jharna Chakravorty, Karsing Megu and Jaya Narah (from back to front).
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February 09 - 10, 2018
On February 09th and 10th we had the 1st Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees. The two keynote speakers were Gard Otis (University of Guelph, Canada), an expert on Asian honey bees , and John S. Ascher (National University of Singapore) a world leading expert on taxonomy and systematics of bees. We plan to prepare a small report of the meeting for Current Science. Everyone agreed that we have to do something to increase research on bees and the public awareness of their importance in pollination. (Left: Gard Otis, right Arati Pannure and John Ascher).
On February 09th and 10th we had the 1st Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees. The two keynote speakers were Gard Otis (University of Guelph, Canada), an expert on Asian honey bees , and John S. Ascher (National University of Singapore) a world leading expert on taxonomy and systematics of bees. We plan to prepare a small report of the meeting for Current Science. Everyone agreed that we have to do something to increase research on bees and the public awareness of their importance in pollination. (Left: Gard Otis, right Arati Pannure and John Ascher).
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January, 2018 Belavadi (Department of Entomology, UAS-GKVK) and Axel are preparing a Bangalore Meeting on Asian Bees (Feb 9th - 10th) There will be talks in the morning that are open to the interested public. The program and poster are almost finished and can be found on the NCBS event webpage. (requests can be send to [email protected]) |
January 03, 2018 Rikesh's manuscript Time-restricted foraging under natural light/dark condition shifts the molecular clock in the honey bee, Apis mellifera is available on the biorxiv.org pre-print server for Biology.
NCBS Annual Talks: This year Hema (Apis florea), Divya (mass spec of neuromodulators), and Arumoy (dance behavior) present their work.
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January 02, 2018
Ebi's manuscript on Regulation of individual differences in recruitment behaviour within honey bee foraging groups is now available on the biorxiv.org pre-print server for Biology.
We recently decided to first publish our manuscripts on the pre-print server and subsequently submit them to a peer-reviewed journal.
Ebi's manuscript on Regulation of individual differences in recruitment behaviour within honey bee foraging groups is now available on the biorxiv.org pre-print server for Biology.
We recently decided to first publish our manuscripts on the pre-print server and subsequently submit them to a peer-reviewed journal.
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December 2017 Sebastian Walter generated an extended pdf-file of his book: BEE LAB BANGALORE If you are interested in the new extended version send a request to Axel ([email protected].). The pdf of the printed book can be downloaded from the Goethe Institut Bangalore. |
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December 2017
In honour for Adriana's and Marco's fruitful and successful work in our lab we decided to grant this new litte bee to the right, named Theodor, the first life-long honory membership of the Bangalore Bee Lab. (Obviously, he ones had wings) We hope that one day he will pass on the torch. |
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December 2017
Already in October, Jarkko Routtu (University Halle-Wittenberg) started his second visit to Bangalore. He continues his research on the interaction of Apis cerana and the Varro mite. Today (22/12) we were at a family function to celebrate Prof. N.S. Bhat's first granddaughter Mihika. The photo shows Jarkko and Vinay waiting for the lunch in the Gayatri Ganesh Temple. Vinay is a student of the Department of Apiculture (UAS). He studies the effect of Amomum extract on Asian honey bees for his master thesis. |
September/October 2017
Since a few years NCBS has hosted one of the BangaloResidency Fellows, an artist programme by the Goethe Institute Bangalore. This year the NCBS hosts Sebastian Walter collaborated with the Honey Bee Lab. Sebastian Walter (red clothes) is interested in arts, science, and anthropology. In Bangalore, he did research on honey bees and how people in Bangalore interact and perceive bees. Honey bees are one of the few insects that are beneficial for humans. Thus, there are many depictions of honey bees in paintings and writings throughout the history of man. The social organization of honey bees was used as a mirror to contemplate about human society. One aspect of Sebastian's work was to compare the honey bee colony with the buzzing life of Bangalore and the division of labor in the city. He made a book about his experiences with honey bees and people in Bangalore: Bee Lab Bangalore.
Since a few years NCBS has hosted one of the BangaloResidency Fellows, an artist programme by the Goethe Institute Bangalore. This year the NCBS hosts Sebastian Walter collaborated with the Honey Bee Lab. Sebastian Walter (red clothes) is interested in arts, science, and anthropology. In Bangalore, he did research on honey bees and how people in Bangalore interact and perceive bees. Honey bees are one of the few insects that are beneficial for humans. Thus, there are many depictions of honey bees in paintings and writings throughout the history of man. The social organization of honey bees was used as a mirror to contemplate about human society. One aspect of Sebastian's work was to compare the honey bee colony with the buzzing life of Bangalore and the division of labor in the city. He made a book about his experiences with honey bees and people in Bangalore: Bee Lab Bangalore.
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September 2017
Johannes Spaethe (University of Wuerzburg), Johann Neumeyer (Salzburg), and Karsing Megu (RG University, Arunachal Pradesh, left photo, white shirt) continued our series of field trips in Arunachal Pradesh to map the occurrence of bumble bees and honey bees in the North-East Himalayas, for which there is only scarce information available so far.
The field trips are part of the DBT-funded North-East collaboration between research institutions from Bangalore and the North-East. Axel and Jharna Chakravorty (RG University, right photo) are collaborators in this grant scheme. Prabhu from our lab (right photo) just started to work on the Himalayan honey bee, Apis laboriosa.
Johannes Spaethe (University of Wuerzburg), Johann Neumeyer (Salzburg), and Karsing Megu (RG University, Arunachal Pradesh, left photo, white shirt) continued our series of field trips in Arunachal Pradesh to map the occurrence of bumble bees and honey bees in the North-East Himalayas, for which there is only scarce information available so far.
The field trips are part of the DBT-funded North-East collaboration between research institutions from Bangalore and the North-East. Axel and Jharna Chakravorty (RG University, right photo) are collaborators in this grant scheme. Prabhu from our lab (right photo) just started to work on the Himalayan honey bee, Apis laboriosa.
July 2017
US summer: time for meetings and conferences. Aridni and Rikesh presented at the Chronobiology Gordon Research Conference and Rikesh gave a talk at the accompanying Gordon Research Seminar meeting. Divya showed a poster at the Neuromodulation Gordon Conference and initiated a collaboration with Robert Wessells (Wayne State University). She will measure biogenic amine levels in Drosophila heads. And Ebi gave a talk at the Behavior 2017 conference.
(Photo shows the participants of the Chronobiology Gordon Research Seminar, Aridni first row third from the right, Rikesh second row second from the right).
US summer: time for meetings and conferences. Aridni and Rikesh presented at the Chronobiology Gordon Research Conference and Rikesh gave a talk at the accompanying Gordon Research Seminar meeting. Divya showed a poster at the Neuromodulation Gordon Conference and initiated a collaboration with Robert Wessells (Wayne State University). She will measure biogenic amine levels in Drosophila heads. And Ebi gave a talk at the Behavior 2017 conference.
(Photo shows the participants of the Chronobiology Gordon Research Seminar, Aridni first row third from the right, Rikesh second row second from the right).
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March 2017 Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter and Ricarda Scheiner visited for two weeks. Both gave talks at the XIII Agricultural Science Congress Satellite Meeting Pollinators and Climate Change organized by V.V. Belavadi (Department of Entomology, UAS-GKVK). Ingolf also gave a talk for the students of the Department of Entomology (photo). In between, Ingolf and Ricarda visited Patrick and Friedrich at the Agumbe Rainforest Research. Patrick and Friedrich did some dance experiments with A. cerana colonies in the rainforest. |
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March 2017
Patrick visited us again. This time he focused on dance experiments generating calibration curves for different Asian honey bee species. Neethu Thulasi from the Department of Apiculture UAS-GKVK worked with him to establish a calibration curve for Apis florea. The photo shows Patrick and Fabienne Maihoff (Thomas Schmitt's lab, University of Wuerzburg) on the hunt for A. florea colonies. Fabienne, who visited us for 3 months, did extensive experiments on nest mate recognition in A. florea and A. dorsata. |
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March 2017 Adriana Schatton and Marco Schubert came to Bangalore. Adriana, who works in Constance Scharff's lab (FU Berlin), studied the FOXP2 gene in Apis mellifera. During her visit Adriana taught Aridni in situs. Finally, we dig deeper into the brain and start to investigate changes in the spatio-temporal expression pattern of genes during behavior. Adriana's research visit was supported by the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft which published a small report about her research stay (by the way, Adriana you should come back.) Marco worked in Shannon's Lab and helped them to establish their Calcium-imaging set up. |
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January 2017
Benjamin Rutschmann (University of Wuerzburg, Germany) visited the lab for a month to continue his work on Apis dorsata. Benjamin observed the movement patterns of dorsata workers before the so called massed flight activity using IR cameras and thermal imaging. We hope to document how and who is initiating the massed flight activity. Gerald Kastberger was the first to describe this unique collective behavior (Kastberger, 1996). Hema found a similar behavior in Apis florea (Bhagavan et al., 2016). |
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21 January 2017
Teiichi, Satoshi, and Nana visited our lab in late January. Teiichi, Satoshi, Pallab (ICTS-TIFR), and Axel were finishing their manuscript on sugar-elicited search behavior in A. mellifera and Drosophila. Nana worked on Tina Mukherjee's lab (InStem). On the weekends we toured Malleswaram. The photo shows Teiichi entering Buy 2 Coffee, while Axel tried to get a table at CTR across the road (the crowd behind the Autos). |
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December 2016/February 2017
Jarkko Routtu (University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) and his PhD student Ben(jamin) Conlon visited us to do experiments on varroa-resistance in Apis cerana. Shishira Devraj from the Department of Apiculture at UAS-GKVK was helping with the experiments. On some of the evenings we enjoyed dinner at Koshy's, St. Marks Road (picture from left to right: Ben, Friedrich, Aridni, Jarkko, and Divya).
Jarkko Routtu (University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) and his PhD student Ben(jamin) Conlon visited us to do experiments on varroa-resistance in Apis cerana. Shishira Devraj from the Department of Apiculture at UAS-GKVK was helping with the experiments. On some of the evenings we enjoyed dinner at Koshy's, St. Marks Road (picture from left to right: Ben, Friedrich, Aridni, Jarkko, and Divya).
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27-28 December 2016
Hema presented her work on the bee curtain and behavioral maturation in Apis florea at the National Symposium on "Behavioural Ecology and Management of Agriculturally Important Animals" in Shimoga, Karnataka. Congratulations to Hema winning the 1. Prize for Oral Presentation. |
12 November 2016 NCBS Open Day
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June - August 2016
As in previous years, we hosted several summer interns: Tanaya Ambadkar, Kathan Munshi (both University of Baroda), Mukundan S. (NISER Bhubaneswar), Supraja R (IISER Kolkata), Jhelam Deshpande (now IISER Pune), and Tenzin Dawa (Amherst College, USA). Some of the experiments went very well and we plan to include the results in our manuscripts. "Dear Axel and Rikesh, It’s been two weeks since class started. Last week in my Animal Behavior class, our professor started talking about honey bee and I thought of my two months stay in NCBS. Also, we are doing RNA isolation and qPCR in my Molecular Genetics lab!! Can you believe it???? (Thank you for giving me a head start:)) Regards, Tenzin" (send Sept 21, 2016) |
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28 July - 5 August 2016
Ebi and Arumoy from the lab have been awarded with travel support from the International Society for Behavioural Ecology to attend the 16th congress of the ISBE at the University of Exeter. They will present their work on individual variation in dance activity (Ebi: poster) and effects of feeder shifting on waggle run duration (Arumoy: talk). Both met and talk with a lot of people, among them Hopi Hoekstra (left photo) and Fred Dyer (right photo). Fred Dyer published many important papers on the dance language and Asian honeybees.
Ebi and Arumoy from the lab have been awarded with travel support from the International Society for Behavioural Ecology to attend the 16th congress of the ISBE at the University of Exeter. They will present their work on individual variation in dance activity (Ebi: poster) and effects of feeder shifting on waggle run duration (Arumoy: talk). Both met and talk with a lot of people, among them Hopi Hoekstra (left photo) and Fred Dyer (right photo). Fred Dyer published many important papers on the dance language and Asian honeybees.
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24 May - 13 june 2016
Jaya Narah, Mosses Messar, and Karsing Megu students of our collaborator Prof. Jharna Chakravorty (RG University, Arunachal Pradesh) joined Johannes Spaethe, Johann Neumayer and Martin Streinzer for our 2. Himalaya field trip to map bumble bee species in the Eastern Himalayas. Johann Neumayer and Martin Streinzer who are experts on mountainous bumble bee species will help to build up a bumble bee collection at NCBS. Jaya Narah sponsored programme “Chemical Ecology of the North-East Region (NER) of India: A Collaborative Programme Linking NER and Bangalore Researchers”. She started to study adaptations to life at high altitudes in bumble bees. She will join our lab in August to participate in the educational programme of the Chemical Ecology Initiative. |
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21 - 25 May 2016
Rikesh presented a poster on food entrainment in honey bees at the SRBR (Society for Research on Biological Rhythms) meeting in Florida. The poster "Time restricted foraging activity and clock gene expression in honey bees" was well received and he made some new friends. |
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30 April 2016
Jake Herman is back to visit our lab for a period of 3 months. During his stay, he will travel throughout India (accompanied by Prabhu from the lab) and collect A.florea samples from Kerala to Kashmir. This is part of his Ph.D project in which he looks at diversity of A.florea across geographical landscapes. Jake is supported by Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) fellowship from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF). |
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23 April 2016
Axel, Arumoy and Ebi participated in the new NCBS School Outreach Programme. This time students (9th and 11th class) from Kendriya Vidhyalaya (RWF and Malleswaram) visited NCBS. |
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14 February 2016
Prof. Gard Otis, from the University of Guelph visited our lab for a few days. There was an interaction session, with everyone giving a short presentation on their work. Gard also gave a talk at GKVK on "Apis nigrocincta of Sulawesi, Indonesia: Its rediscovery and what it tells us about the evolution of honeybees". |
6 February 2016
Hema’s paper “Structural and temporal dynamics of the bee curtain in the open-nesting honey bee species, Apis florea” was published online. We report for the first time the so-called “massed flight activity” in Apis florea, which was previously observed for A. dorsata. Furthermore, we provide experimental data that A. florea workers become foragers at more than twice the age of A. mellifera workers.
Hema’s paper “Structural and temporal dynamics of the bee curtain in the open-nesting honey bee species, Apis florea” was published online. We report for the first time the so-called “massed flight activity” in Apis florea, which was previously observed for A. dorsata. Furthermore, we provide experimental data that A. florea workers become foragers at more than twice the age of A. mellifera workers.
8 January 2016
With his former group (Gene Robinson’s lab at UIUC) Axel published the paper “Brain regions and molecular pathways responding to food reward type and value in honey bees”. The paper describes an extensive experimental approach including whole brain in situs and RNAseq studies to identify cell clusters and molecules involved in reward-based behavior. Some of the projects in our lab continue this research direction.
With his former group (Gene Robinson’s lab at UIUC) Axel published the paper “Brain regions and molecular pathways responding to food reward type and value in honey bees”. The paper describes an extensive experimental approach including whole brain in situs and RNAseq studies to identify cell clusters and molecules involved in reward-based behavior. Some of the projects in our lab continue this research direction.
25 November 2015
The work Divya did together with Sebastian Sturm and Susanne Neupert during her stay in the group of Reinhard Predel just got accepted as "Agatoxin-like peptides in the neuroendocrine system of the honey bee and other insects". They identified a peptide similar to Agatoxin, a toxin in spider venom, in the neuroendocrine system of honey bees. Now the hypothesis is that this newly identified peptide might be a functional neuromodulator.
The work Divya did together with Sebastian Sturm and Susanne Neupert during her stay in the group of Reinhard Predel just got accepted as "Agatoxin-like peptides in the neuroendocrine system of the honey bee and other insects". They identified a peptide similar to Agatoxin, a toxin in spider venom, in the neuroendocrine system of honey bees. Now the hypothesis is that this newly identified peptide might be a functional neuromodulator.
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20 November 2015
This autumn we hosted four foreign students. Elea Dheilly (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland), Franziska Bandorf and Sophia Bohlke (Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Germany), and Benjamin Rutschmann (University of Innsbruck, Austria). Elea studies clock gene expression in Apis florea, Franziska and Sophia test whether Apis dorsata is better at nest mate recognition than all the other honey bee species, and Benjamin develops data loggers to measure nest temperatures of open-nesting honey bee species. |
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2 November 2015
Axel, Arumoy, Abhishek and Ebi attended the National Conference on Ecology and Evolution held at IISER Mohali and organised by the Ethological Society of India. Both Arumoy and Ebi gave talks about their work. |
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3 October 2015
Axel and group of Indian and European colleagues went for a field trip to Arunachal Pradesh to map bumblebee and Myrmica (ant) species in the Eastern Himalayas. The trip is part of a collaboration between Prof. Jharna Chakravorty (Rajiv Gandhi University in Arunachal Pradesh) and Axel within the DBT-sponsored programme “Chemical Ecology of the North-East Region (NER) of India: A Collaborative Programme Linking NER and Bangalore Researchers”. |
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19 August 2015
In the summer Prof Teiichi Tanimura and his students Naomie Murashima and Ayaka Nakao visited our lab. Teichi and Axel are currently establishing lab assays to study specific aspects of honey bee dance behavior in Drosophila. |
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15 August 2015
Prabhu and Arumoy attended the Indian Bee course 2015 (10th -14th August) organised by Department of Animal Science, Central University of Kerala, RST Campus, Padannakkad, Kasaragod, Kerala. |
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27 June 2015
Divya attended the first Gordon Research Conference on "Behavior and Modulation of Neural Circuits" held at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) between the 21st and 26th of June 2015. |
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30 May 2015
Ebi has left on a 2 month trip to the Universität Würzburg to perform experiments under the guidance of Dr. Ricarda Scheiner |
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6 April 2015
Jake Herman, from the lab of Dr. Ulrich Mueller University of Texas just finished a 3 week stay in our Lab. During this time, he went around the Eastern and Western Ghats collecting Apis florea samples for landscape genomic studies. |
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21 February 2015
The KSK School of Chemical Ecology is mid way through with all the teachers and participants having a great experience so far. |
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Daniel showing a comb to the kids. Photo : Ebi
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6 February 2015
Kindergarten students from the Maple Bear School, Sahakara Nagar visited the lab today to have a glimpse into the lives of bees. |
6 February 2015
Dr. Asem Surindro Singh received a travel grant from the International Society for Neuroscience to attend the 46th ASN (American Society for Neurochemistry) Meeting, to be held at Atlanta, Georgia, from 14th - 18th March 2015, United States.
Dr. Asem Surindro Singh received a travel grant from the International Society for Neuroscience to attend the 46th ASN (American Society for Neurochemistry) Meeting, to be held at Atlanta, Georgia, from 14th - 18th March 2015, United States.
15 January 2015
Patrick Kohl (from the lab of Dr. Klaus B. Tenberge at the University of Muenster) and Daniel Materna (from the lab of Dr. Johannes Spaethe, University of Wuerzburg) are visiting our lab for a period of 3 months. Patrick will be working on curtain bee formation in cavity nesting and open nesting species. Daniel will be working on visual discrimination in Indian Honeybees.
Patrick Kohl (from the lab of Dr. Klaus B. Tenberge at the University of Muenster) and Daniel Materna (from the lab of Dr. Johannes Spaethe, University of Wuerzburg) are visiting our lab for a period of 3 months. Patrick will be working on curtain bee formation in cavity nesting and open nesting species. Daniel will be working on visual discrimination in Indian Honeybees.
8 January 2015
Arumoy Chatterjee and Prabhudev M V were awarded with one of the NCBS Best Poster Prizes during the NCBS Annual Talks (themed on Biology Across Scales) held during 5-8 January 2015.
Arumoy Chatterjee and Prabhudev M V were awarded with one of the NCBS Best Poster Prizes during the NCBS Annual Talks (themed on Biology Across Scales) held during 5-8 January 2015.
1 January 2015
Dr. Arpita Sarkar recently joined our lab as a post-doc. She will work on the molecular underpinnings of sugar-elicited search behaviour in Drosophila.
Dr. Arpita Sarkar recently joined our lab as a post-doc. She will work on the molecular underpinnings of sugar-elicited search behaviour in Drosophila.
16 September 2014
Dr. Asem Surindro Singh received foreign travel grant from the Science and Engineering Research Board for presenting his research work in the upcoming 3rd International Conference and Exhibition on Cell & Gene Therapy to be held in October 27-29, 2014, at Embassy Suites Las Vegas, USA.
Dr. Asem Surindro Singh received foreign travel grant from the Science and Engineering Research Board for presenting his research work in the upcoming 3rd International Conference and Exhibition on Cell & Gene Therapy to be held in October 27-29, 2014, at Embassy Suites Las Vegas, USA.
16 September 2014
Hinal got selected for the International Meeting on Neuromodulation of Behaviour. She will be presenting a poster during the meeting. You are all invited to drop by and have a look!
Hinal got selected for the International Meeting on Neuromodulation of Behaviour. She will be presenting a poster during the meeting. You are all invited to drop by and have a look!
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31 August 2014
Rikesh returned from the University of Würzburg, where he worked on "Circadian changes in antennal gene expression in Apis mellifera drones and workers", under Dr. Johannes Spaethe and Prof. Wolfgang Rössler. |
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18 August 2014
Divya has left on a 3 month trip to the Biozentrum, Universität zu Köln, to work on "Identifying neurohormones in the honeybee Apis mellifera" in Prof. Reinhard Predel's lab, under Dr. Suzanne Neupert. |
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13 - 18 July 2014
Ebi and Dr. Axel attended the IUSSI Conference 2014, held in Cairns, Australia. Dr. Axel was the organiser for one of the symposiums at the conference "Recruitment behavior and dance language communication: recent advances", while Ebi presented a poster titled "Individual variability in Dance Behaviour" |
A view of Cairns Central. Photo : Ebi
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The Central School for Tibetans Internship Program
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For the past 2 summers, the lab has played host to one Tibetan student as part of a month-long internship program for Central School for Tibetans run by NCBS. Tenzin Zomkey joined us during the summer of 2013, and Sonam Dolma joined us in the summer of 2014. During this month, they both work with different lab members to get a feeling for current methods employed in doing science and research.
Read the full story here. |
Visitors to the Lab
Taketoshi Kiya (Feb, 2013)
Gene Robinson (July, 2013)
Susanne Neupert (Feb, 2014)
Teiichi Tanimura (April, 2014)
Thomas Schmitt (October, 2014)
Himender Bharti (October, 2014)
Teiichi Tanimura (August, 2015)
Gene Robinson (July, 2013)
Susanne Neupert (Feb, 2014)
Teiichi Tanimura (April, 2014)
Thomas Schmitt (October, 2014)
Himender Bharti (October, 2014)
Teiichi Tanimura (August, 2015)
