Once again, I've stayed up all night reading research papers instead of going to bed on time or getting work done. This happens every time I work on a patch for Hive Time.

I think my favourite paper of the evening was this one https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.805385/full

Howard, Greentree, Avarguès-Weber, Garcia, Greentree and Dyer (2022) Numerosity Categorization by Parity in an Insect and Simple Neural Network

Available CC BY 4.0

@Cheeseness You seem to be really interested in bees. Have you, by any chance, read 'A Sting in the Tale' (Dave Goulson)? 🐝

@sudo I have not. Sounds interesting.

@Cheeseness It's a great read. It really highlights the diversity among bee species and the lack of awareness around bumblebees, who are just as important to preserving the ecosystem.

@sudo It's difficult here (and in New Zealand I suspect), where bumblebees are invasive and have an impact not only on native bee populations, but also on plant behaviour (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-022-02729-2)

I'm glad to know that there's effort to preserve and restore them in their natural habitats, though!

@sudo Iive in Tasmania rather than South America, where bumblebees were introduced in 1992, and in addition to competing with native insects, they're also believed to have played a role in increasing the spread of some introduced plant species that didn't previously have as suited a pollinator.

It's complex!

@Cheeseness It definitely is complex! We have really 'messed up' this planet. Is it even possible to restore it? 😧 🤔

@sudo I'm probably not qualified to give an authoritative answer, but my suspicion is that much like everything else, the answer is, "No, but if we take dramatic action right now, can can limit how much will be lost."