In Bees, A Hunt for the Roots of Social Behavior [Slide Show]
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Sarah Kocher, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard, is trying to understand the genetics underlying social behavior in bees. Photo: Julien Ayroles
Bees from the L. albipes species are unusual in that they can adopt either a social or solitary lifestyle. In social bee communities, queen bees lay eggs while foragers collect pollen for the hive. Photo: Sarah Kocher
Kocher often hikes long distances to find good populations of bees, such as this solitary bee field site in Switzerland. Photo: Sarah Kocher
A French researcher, Cecile Plateaux-Quenu, conducted early work in L. albipes, identifying, cataloging and studying many of the populations that Kocher now studies. Photo: Sarah Kocher
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Social bees are often found along the edges of meadows such as this one in Dordogne, France. Photo: Sarah Kocher
Bee populations from this part of the Pyrenees are likely to be solitary because of the cooler mountain climates, but more research is needed to confirm this. Photo: Julien Ayroles
This female L. albipes bee came from a social population in Dordogne, France. Credit: Sarah Kocher
This honeybee, known as Yellow 57, was one of the most highly specialized bees ever studied. She spent her days carrying water from a stream to the hive. Credit: Gene Robinson
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The alfalfa leafcutter bee, Megachile rotundata, is a solitary species that will be sequenced as part of Gene Robinson’s latest project. Credit: USGS
In Bees, A Hunt for the Roots of Social Behavior [Slide Show]By comparing the genomes of social and solitary bees, scientists hope to uncover the basis for communal behavior
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