ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Bharath Kumar A K is an author on ‘ Tropical and montane Apis cerana show distinct dance–distance calibration curves’, published in JEB. Bharath Kumar is a Research Assistant in the lab of Dr Axel Brockmann at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India, investigating bee behavior and pollination biology.
Bharath Kumar A. K.
How did you become interested in biology?
I grew up in Amaravathi Nagar, a village near the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary, Tirupur district in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. I spent my free time in the fields involved in various farming activities observing the nature. The proximity to the forest also provided me with the opportunity to observe and appreciate the diversity of plants, insects and birds which instilled in me the interest towards biology.
Describe your scientific journey and your current research focus
I pursued my undergraduate degree in agriculture at the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India, during which I discovered my liking for insects and decided to specialize in agricultural entomology. During the covid lockdown I started to catch wild colonies of Indian hive bees (Apis cerana) and kept them in hives made from scrap wood and mud pots. I started to observe the bees, their behavior and read more on beekeeping. Deciding to specialize in bees, I went on to pursue a master's in apiculture at the Department of Apiculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. For my master's thesis I worked under the supervision of Dr Axel Brockmann at the honey bee lab, National Centre for Biological Sciences.
We worked on the waggle dance communication of night active rock bee (Apis dorsata) foragers. Apis dorsata in comparison with other honey bee species is unique as they not only forage during the day but also during twilight and moonlit nights. I studied the changes in the direction of the waggle dances during the night to understand how they orient their dances in the absence of sun. I am currently preparing the manuscript about these experiments. After completing my master's, I continued as a research assistant in the lab and performed comparative experiments on dance behaviour in tropical and temperate populations of Apis cerana.
How would you explain the main findings of your paper to a member of the public?
Karl von Frisch and his students demonstrated that populations of Apis mellifera differ in their distance communication. They called this phenomenon dance dialects, similar to dialects in the song communication of birds. It is hypothesized that there is geographic variation in the dance dialects between temperate and tropical populations. Similar to Apis mellifera, the India hive bee Apis cerana originated in the tropics and extended their distribution range into the temperate regions. We found that the tropical and temperate populations of Apis cerana in India exhibit different dance dialects comparable to those of A. mellifera populations.
Why did you choose JEB to publish your paper?
JEB has a long history in publishing papers with a focus on mechanisms and evolution of animal behavior. Although in our paper we provide only behavioral data, we are convinced that it is interesting for further mechanistic and evolutionary studies as there is interest in studying how behavioral changes can be connected to changes in brain circuits.
Feeder station: blue colored gravity feeder with sugar syrup kept at 100 m from the colony.
Feeder station: blue colored gravity feeder with sugar syrup kept at 100 m from the colony.
What do you enjoy most about research, and why?
Experiments with free flying bees involves manipulation and innovation in the field. I work on the Asian honey bees (Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, Apis florea) and we don't know a lot about them. Studying their behavior and ecology is very rewarding and keeps me motivated.
What is the hardest challenge you have faced in the course of your research and how did you overcome it?
Training bees to the feeder when there is an abundance of flora in the vicinity is difficult. Foragers are less likely to visit the artificial sugar syrup feeder and perform waggle dances. We motivated them by providing a lower concentration for a brief period followed by a higher concentration of sugar syrup.
What is the most important piece of equipment for your research, what does it do and what question did it help you address?
We use a custom-built observation hive to house the colony. Indian hive bees are more prone to absconding when studied in vertical observation where frames are kept one above the other. We instead used an observation hive in which frames can be arranged like a regular beehive. There is less stress on the bees and it is efficient for experiments. The glass wall on one side enables us to record and observe the waggle dances of the marked bees.
What's next for you?
I am applying for PhD positions and would like to continue work on the Asian honey bees. Experimental protocols are standardized for Apis mellifera and the species has been studied in detail. But very little is known about the other species of honey bees and these are important pollinators in Asia. I would like to pursue a PhD in a lab which is interested in a comparative study of A. mellifera and the other tropical honey bee species.
Bharath Kumar A K’s contact details: National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru 560065, India.
E-mail: [email protected]
