Huang, M.-J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2024

The distribution of Apis laboriosa revisited: range extensions and biogeographic affinities

Apis laboriosa, the Himalayan giant honeybee, inhabits the foothills of the Himalaya and neighboring mountainous regions. Here we revise its distribution in light of recent reports and discoveries. The range now extends from longitude 105.9{degrees}E in Cao Bang, Vietnam, in the east to 74.4{degrees}E in the Pir Panjal Range of western Himalaya, a linear distance of 3300 km, with the most notable new localities in northeastern Vietnam, central Myanmar, northern Thailand, and AJK-Pakistan. The species generally occurs at lower elevations in the eastern part of its range than in Nepal, northern India, and the border region between India and Pakistan. Most but not all of the new localities are within the range predicted by species distribution modelling. We discuss the new localities that fall outside of the predicted range, the biotic characteristics of the terrestrial ecoregions in which the species occurs, and the remaining regions that may harbor this spectacular honey bee species.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Optimal foraging of benthic diatoms evolving novel movement behaviours

Adaptive locomotion of living organisms contributes to their competitive abilities and helps maintain their fitness in diverse environments. To date, however, our understanding of searching behavior and its ultimate cause remains poorly understood in ecology and biology. Here, we investigate motion patterns of biofilm-inhabiting marine raphid diatom Navicula arenaria var. rostellata in two-dimensional space. We report that individual Navicula cells display a "circular run-and-reversal" movement behavior at different concentrations of dissolved silicic acid (dSi). We show that gliding motions of cells can be predicted accurately with a universal Langevin model. Our experimental results are consistent with an optimal foraging strategy and a maximized diffusivity of the theoretical outcomes in which both circular-run and reversal behaviors are important ingredients. Our theoretical results suggest that the evolving movement behaviors of diatoms may be driven by optimization of searching behavioral strategy, and predicted behavioral parameters coincide with the experimental observations. These optimized movement behaviors are an evolutionarily stable strategy to cope with environmental complexity. ONE SENTENCE SUMMARYNovel experiments and modelling reveal that raphid diatoms can actively exploit resources in complex environments by adjusting their movement behavior.

ecology↗